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The war in Ukraine has us heading for a global food catastrophe
This conflict may also destroy millions of lives far from the battlefield by damaging a global food system already weakened by Covid-19, climate change and high energy prices – we need peace, now, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
Nearly 50 countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for at least 30 per cent of their wheat imports.

ON MAY 18 UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm. For him “the spectre of a global food shortage” looms and he fears “this dangerous situation could tip into catastrophe.”

“It threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years.”

Six days before the raid, David Beasley, director of the World Food Programme (WPF), had warned of an impending food disaster: “If we do not address the situation immediately over the next nine months we will see famine, we will see destabilisation of nations and we will see mass migration. If we don’t do something we are going to pay a mighty big price.”

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