By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken lauded the successful grain shipment from Ukraine that arrived in Djbouti in East Africa on Tuesday. The 23,300 tons of metric wheat will be distributed within Ethiopia and Somalia – two nations that have experienced extreme drought for the last four years and as Blinken commented, “are dangerously food insecure.” Blinken added that the U.S. is ‘grateful for the important role Djibouti has played, facilitating the flow of humanitarian goods to the region.”
Blinken, in a formal statement on Tuesday said that the current shipment that arrived is part of over $68 million “recent contribution” by the U.S. to the World Food Program (WFP) and he added “this grain is among the first shipments of Ukrainian agricultural products exported from the Black Sea to reach some of the world’s most food insecure countries since the beginning of Russia’s unjustified, full-scale attack on Ukraine on February 24.” The secretary of state said the U.S. is the “largest contributor to the WFP, having provided $5.7 billion to the organization since October 2021.” Blinken said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the U.S. has made available over $5.4 billion in humanitarian assistance to “scale up emergency food security operations in food insecure countries globally.”
He emphasized that agricultural products from Ukraine “are critical to global food security.” Blinken added that the U.S. “supports the Turkey and UN-brokered deal between Ukraine and Russia to resume Ukrainian agricultural exports via the Black Sea.” Blinken said that the U.S. is “closely monitoring” Russia’s adherence to the deal’s terms. Blinken reiterated the same message from U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres: “We call on Russia to immediately cease its war on Ukraine, which would do much to address the recent spike in global food insecurity.”
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