Rising prices and slowing economic growth put millions of households across the continent at risk.
Africa is facing an “unprecedented” crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has raised food and fuel prices, the United Nations said.
The conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow are disrupting supplies of wheat, fertilizers and other goods, complicating the difficulties Africa is already facing due to climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is an unprecedented crisis for the continent,” UNDP chief economist in Africa Raymond Gilpin said on Friday.
“We see a decline in the continent’s GDP growth,” he said.
Widespread inflation rises risks, especially for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, Gilpin told a news conference in Geneva.
Many African countries are heavily dependent on food and fertilizer imports from Russia and Ukraine, two major exporters of wheat, corn, canola and sunflower oil. In some African countries, up to 80 percent of wheat comes from Russia and Ukraine.
Rising oil prices from the war also increased fuel and diesel costs.
“With the disturbances that are happening now, you see that an emergency situation is materializing, because where are these countries turning for goods overnight?” Said Ahuna Eziakonwa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Africa.
Rising prices and slowing economic growth put millions of households at risk across the continent – including most of the world’s poorest countries.
Economic difficulties could also exacerbate social tensions in crisis-affected parts of the continent, such as the Sahel, parts of Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, Gilpin said.
“Tensions, especially in urban areas, low-income communities, can spill over and lead to violent protests and violent riots,” he said, noting that countries holding elections this year and next are particularly vulnerable.
“Three-dimensional” crisis
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that he was seeking talks to return Ukrainian and Russian agriculture and fertilizer products to world markets to help end the “three-dimensional” crisis in developing countries.
The International Monetary Fund said last month that the war in Ukraine had already hit the Middle East and North Africa significantly, warning that high prices could lead to social unrest in Africa.
The European Union, the United States and more than two dozen other countries pledged on Friday to support global food security in a joint statement to the World Trade Organization.
Concerned about the “global effects on food security” caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they stressed the “urgency and importance of maintaining open and predictable agricultural markets and trade”.
The head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, warned back in March that “bullets and bombs in Ukraine could bring the global hunger crisis to levels beyond anything we’ve seen before.”
The conflict, he later told the UN Security Council, would mean “skyrocketing spending on food, fuel and supplies, less food for the starving and even more people going hungry.”
The war in Ukraine has already led to rising commodity prices, with the price of sunflower and rapeseed oil rising by 40 percent in Europe in two months. And market turmoil has deepened as some countries consider cutting exports to ensure home supplies. Indonesia’s recent decision to suspend palm oil exports due to domestic shortages has pushed vegetable oil prices to new heights.
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