#pledges #billion #feed #Horn #Africa #calls
US Assistant Commissioner Samantha Power on Monday pledged $1.18 billion to avert famine in the Horn of Africa and urged other nations, including China, to do more to tackle a food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Africa of Ukraine has been tightened.
Power expressed alarm that war and climate change were worsening hunger around the world, shortly after a decade of progress was “wiped out” by the Covid pandemic.
“Today we face something even more devastating, as not only are tens of millions more affected by this severe hunger, many of them are even at risk of starvation,” she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said the situation is particularly dire in turbulent Somalia, conflict-hit Ethiopia and Kenya, known as the Horn of Africa, which is expected to experience its fifth straight drought later this year .
Announcing a visit to the Horn of Africa this weekend, Power said at least 1,103 children had died there and some seven million other children were severely malnourished.
Power said the $1.18 billion in US aid would include emergency food — specifically sorghum, a locally used grain that’s more readily available than wheat — as well as a peanut-based supplement for malnourished children and veterinary services for dying livestock .
“Now more must be done before famine strikes, before millions more children are on the brink,” she said.
World food prices have skyrocketed due to the war in Ukraine, a leading wheat exporter, as Russian warships blockaded ports while Kyiv laid mines to stave off a feared amphibious attack.
Power has criticized Russia’s “sinister” policies, but also blamed China – which the United States regards as a leading global competitor – for its fertilizer trade restrictions and grain “hoarding”.
If China were to release fertilizers or grains to the world market or the World Food Program, it would “significantly ease the pressure on food and fertilizer prices and strongly demonstrate the country’s desire to be a global leader and a friend of the world’s least developed economies “, she said .
She also tacitly criticized India, which Washington sees as a rising ally but refuses to shun historic partner Russia and has imposed its own wheat export ban.
Praising Indonesia for lifting palm oil restrictions, Power said: “We encourage other nations to take similar steps, especially as several of the countries introducing such bans have been unwilling to criticize the Russian government’s belligerence.”
“Countries that sat out this war cannot sit out this global food crisis,” she said.
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