The conflict has driven up the cost of food in a region that depends heavily on crops from Russia and Ukraine and is facing what could be its worst drought in four decades.
First came the drought, drying up rivers, and claiming the lives of two of Ruqiya Hussein Ahmed’s children as her family fled the barren countryside in southwest Somalia. Then came the war in Ukraine, pushing food prices so high that even after making it to the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, she is struggling to keep her two other children alive. “Even here, we have nothing,” she said. Across East Africa, below-average rainfall has created some of the driest conditions in four decades, according to the United Nations, leaving more than 13 million people facing severe hunger. Seasonal harvests have hit their lowest in decades, malnourished children are filling hospitals and many families are walking long distances to find help. The devastating drought has blanketed most of Somalia, leaving nearly a third of the population hungry. In neighboring Kenya, the drought has left more than three million people short of food and killed more than 1.5 million livestock. And in Ethiopia, where a civil war has impeded aid delivery into the northern Tigray region, food insecurity is more widespread than at any time in the last six years. The first food aid to Tigray in three months arrived on Friday. Now, the war in Ukraine is making the crisis even worse by raising the price of grains, fuel and fertilizer. Russia and Ukraine are some of the region’s top suppliers of agricultural commodities such as wheat, soybeans and barley. At least 14 African countries import half of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Eritrea depends on them entirely for its wheat imports. “The conflict in Ukraine is compounding an already complicated situation in East Africa,” Gabriela Bucher, the executive director for the charity organization Oxfam International, said in a phone interview.
