First Ukraine grain ship for Horn of Africa reaches Djibouti

first ship carrying grain from Ukraine for people in hungriest parts of world has docked at Horn of Africa port of Djibouti as areas of East Africa are bly affected by dely drought and conflict.

Food security experts call it a drop in bucket for vast needs in worst-hit Horn countries of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, nation where this first shipment is going. But flow of grain from Ukraine for or hungry parts of world is expected to continue, with anor ship departing Tuesday for Yemen. U.N. World Food Program has said it is working on multiple ships.

WFP says this first shipment of grain will be shipped overland to norrn Ethiopia, where millions of people have been affected by country’s Tigray conflict, which has now flared up again.

How any of grain will reach Tigray is now in question as humanitarian deliveries by ro and air have been suspended amid fighting that sparked again last week between Tigray forces and Ethiopian ones. But Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara and Afar regions also are expected to benefit.

WFP has said 23,000 metric tons of grain on first ship are enough to feed 1.5 million people on full rations for a month. But U.N. has said 2.4 million in Tigray alone are severely food insecure and that 20 million people across Ethiopia face hunger.

Millions of or people in Horn of Africa region are going hungry because of drought, and thousands have died. Somalia has been especially hard hit because it sourced at least 90% of its grain from Ukraine and Russia before Russia inved Ukraine in February.

Millions of tons of food are needed for Horn of Africa, WFP said. “In Ethiopia alone, three-quarters of everything that we used to distribute originated from Ukraine and Russia,” regional director Michael Dunford said.

Food security experts have said it will take weeks for people in African countries to see grain from Ukraine arrive and even longer to see it bring down high food prices that have been a source of despair and protests in multiple nations.

Far more ships carrying grain from Ukraine’s reopened ports have been going to richer places like Europe as existing business contracts are fulfilled. As of Sunday, 114 ships carrying more than 1.2 million metric tons of food commodities h left Ukraine, WFP said, but “export volumes remain far below pre-conflict averages.”