Baerbock calls on the world community to fight hunger

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called on the international community to fight the worsening hunger crisis in the world with determination. “More than 44 billion euros will be needed this year, only half of which has been financed,” said the Greens politician on Friday in Berlin.

The situation is highly dramatic. 345 million women, children and men worldwide are threatened by food shortages. “It is a hunger crisis looming before us like a life-threatening wave.” Some of the reasons for this are not new and can be found, for example, in climate change and the consequences of the corona pandemic. “But it was Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine that turned a wave into a tsunami,” said Baerbock. “Russia is deliberately using hunger as a weapon of war and is holding the whole world hostage.”

The foreign minister, together with development minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) and agriculture minister Cem zdemir (Greens), spoke at an international conference on food security in Berlin. Around 50 delegations had agreed to this at short notice, and around 40 ministers had come, said Baerbock. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also traveled to Berlin.

Schulze explained that around 400 million people worldwide would normally be supplied with food from the Ukraine. In many countries, these deliveries failed to materialize, and even more countries suffered from the high world market prices as a result of the war in Ukraine. “As always, it’s the poorest who suffer the most.” Often the only thing left for these people is hunger. The federal government will invest a total of around four billion euros this year to combat hunger worldwide.

It is also about avoiding the next food crisis and the one after that with more sustainability. More cultivation of more climate-adapted varieties such as millet in the developing countries, more storage capacity on site and more regional trade are needed, emphasized Schulze.

zdemir spoke of a “multidimensional warfare” by the Russian President Wladimir Putin. They want to defeat Ukraine militarily, are waging a hunger war against the global South and an energy war against the European Union. “That’s why the message today is: We won’t let Putin intimidate us. Now it’s also about showing what we’re made of.”/sk/DP/ngu

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