US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield said today that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will lead to food insecurity for 40 million people, and that sub-Saharan Africa will suffer the most.

The United States contributed $4.5 billion to food security at the G7 summit, of which $2.76 billion was its own contribution.

However, African governments have avoided speaking out against the ongoing war in Ukraine, thus keeping their distance from the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia.

Africans “don’t want to be forced to choose sides” but “need to know the facts,” Greenfield said.

While energy, climate change, the pandemic and conflict are the main causes of global food supply problems, the “most insidious source” is hunger, deliberately used as a weapon of war, he said.

During a visit to Cameroon last week, French President Emmanuel Macron used similar language when he called the global food crisis one of Russia’s “weapons of war”.

Moscow blames the food crisis on Western sanctions that have slowed food and fertilizer exports.

Today, however, Greenfield disputed that claim, saying that Russia is deliberately taking steps to disrupt global food supply chains.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.