By Oluwaseun Sonde
United States Government has announced an additional $215 million for emergency food assistance in Algeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya, among other countries.
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken who made the announcement when meet with the Foreign Ministers of these African countries at the United Nations Headquarters in US to dialogue about a wide range of shared issues, particularly on climate, conflict, prosperity, and food security.
According to him, "First, we’re addressing the humanitarian needs caused by the war of aggression against Ukraine. Just since February, the United States has pledged more than $2.3 billion of food assistance. And pending final approval from our Congress, we’ll provide more than 5 billion in additional aid, including more than $760 million specifically for global food security.
"Second, we are working to alleviate what is also a global fertilizer shortage, including by boosting our domestic production. President Biden committed an additional $250 million just a week ago for a total of $500 million invested in American fertilizer production this year", Secretary Blinken said.
He noted that United States is focused on building agricultural resilience over the long term. "I really want to commend the great work of the African Development Bank with its $1 billion plan to help 40 million African farmers use climate-resilient technologies and increase crop yields.
"Likewise, we have our Feed the Future initiative that’s focused for 15 years on creating long-term improvements to food security, including with partners across Africa. We’re growing Feed the Future with another $5 billion over the next three years and expanding it to new countries, including, indeed, primarily in Africa", Secretary of State added.
He attested that United States held hundreds of engagements to try to prevent this senseless war against Ukraine. "We reached out repeatedly to our Russian partners, to NATO, the African Union, the European Union, other allies and partners. President Vladimir Putin invaded anyway.
"The sanctions that dozens of countries have imposed on Russia after the invasion included very clear carveouts for food, for fertilizer, for seeds. But the Kremlin has chosen to deliberately hold back these exports from Ukraine. There’s an abundance of grain, of wheat that was produced this year in Ukraine; it is just sitting there because it cannot get out of the country.
"Why can’t it get out of the country? Because Russia is blockading the ports from which it would leave and targeting, indeed, those ports, targeting farms and the lands for cultivation. Ukrainian farmers in many cases have been forced into a choice of either fighting for the freedom of their country or fleeing".
Adding that "because Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of key crops, including corn, as well as wheat, seeds for cooking oil, the result that we’re seeing is that people around the world are suffering the consequences of choices that President Putin has made, and especially, again, people across Africa.
"So, that’s why it’s critical that we get together today so that we can hear directly from you what your citizens are actually dealing with and how we can help. For example, if there is specific assistance that countries need to ensure that sanctions don’t prevent the flow of food or fertilizer to you, we want to know. And we’re ready to act fast to help.
"When I had the opportunity to visit Kenya and Nigeria and Senegal in November, I talked about how the United States sees the countries of Africa as partners in solving the challenges that we face. Food security is one of the most urgent of those challenges, and simply put, we want to partner with you on a coordinated response", Blinken said.
Secretary of State further explained that these investments show that global food security is a priority for the United States, and its want to do all that can to coordinate and cooperate with all partners to help countries with the most urgent needs get the relief that they need fast while investing in their own food production.
"Most important, we know that we do not have all the answers, and we certainly are not in the position of dictating solutions from afar. We’re eager to hear, again, what we can do, what we can do better, how we can do it more effectively, understand how the crisis is really affecting your countries, and especially, again, get your ideas for how to solve it and how we can help".
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