UN: US buying big Ukraine grain shipment for hungry regions

World Food Program Chief David Beasley has said that the United States is stepping up to buy about 150,000 tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war.

The final destinations for the grain are not confirmed and discussions continue, Associated Press quotes Beasley as saying.

But the planned shipment, one of several the UN agency that fights hunger is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain that the first WFP-arranged ship from Ukraine is now carrying toward people in the Horn of Africa at risk of starvation.

Beasley spoke On August 19 from northern Kenya, which is deep in a drought that is withering the Horn of Africa region. He sat under a thorn tree among local women who told the AP that the last time it rained was in 2019.
Their bone-dry communities face yet another failed rainy season within weeks that could tip parts of the region, especially neighbouring Somalia, into famine. Already, thousands of people have died. The World Food Program says 22 million people are hungry.

"I think there's a high probability we'll have a declaration of famine" in the coming weeks, Beasley said.