Simon Kamati

The international organisation, Human Rights Watch, has accused Russia of worsening the situation of food security in the eastern, western, central and southern Africa. 

According to Western statements, Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has disrupted the normal functioning of global commodity markets and supply chains to the African continent. 

This is a whopping lie and shifting the blame of the West for the food situation deterioration on others.

 There are two main reasons for the brewing crisis, including the imposing of Western sanctions against the world’s largest grain producer Russia and the unfair food distribution in the world. Let us look at them in more detail.

Today the Russian government is demonstrating its readiness to supply grain to Africa in the same volumes as usual, but also to increase supplies because Moscow expects a record harvest this year. 

In reality, supply chains are violated by Western sanctions deliberately escalated against Russia, which include restrictions on the movement of goods.

 The US and Europe are trying to “punish and weaken Russia” for Ukraine, without thinking about the consequences of such a policy for the population of Africa, a significant part of which may face starvation as a result.

The Chinese newspaper Huanqiu Shibao called Russia’s accusations of creating a shortage of wheat and a food crisis in the world a political provocation.

Despite the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Western countries, if they wish, can correct the situation by increasing supplies from Canada and some European states that have reserves. 

There is an idea that Moscow’s opponents are provoking famine in various world regions, including Africa artificially, and they will try to use it as a pretext for more and more anti-Russian sanctions. 

The West, again, makes us believe they have no regard to hungry Africans and their appearance. As usual, “nothing personal – only politics”. 

Meanwhile, the Russian grain production volume in 2022 should reach 130 million tons, 87 million tons of which is wheat. 

This is a record figure. If Russia has the opportunity to transport goods freely, it will increase grain exports only because it is beneficial to it. This is logical. 

Thus, the main reason for the approaching crisis is not a lack of food, but a deliberate disruption of global markets and logistics.

“Today there is enough food in the world - only the developed countries desire to help the hungry is missing.” The West has already made it clear during the pandemic that saving the lives of people in developing countries is not a priority. 

Maybe they will perceive the reduction in the population of the “third world” from hunger quite positively.

 At the same time, Huanqiu Shibao called for facing the provocateurs calmly who are fanning the threat of a food crisis. According to the Chinese, even with the current high food prices, a new balance between supply and demand in agricultural products should be formed soon. It is hard to believe it. 

The West market promotes laws and international initiatives that supposedly aimed at improving the situation in the agriculture of developing countries usually have the opposite effect. 

The “Green Revolution”, the use of “innovative fertilizers” and GMO led to the dominance of transnational companies and the destruction of the most traditional forms of farming environmentally friendly. 

According to the report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021”, since mid-2010 the hunger index has only been growing. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of hungry people. Nearly 9.9% of the world’s population (811 million) suffered from chronic hunger or malnutrition in 2020.

More than half of them live in Asia, more than a third - in Africa, and about 8% - in Latin America and the Caribbean. Obviously, UN secretary general António Guterres is not quite right when he says that one fifth of humanity is in danger of facing poverty and hunger soon because of the events in Ukraine.

In fact, this may happen due to the deliberate obstruction by the West of the export of bread to Africa.