World leaders pay more for war in Ukraine than averting global food crisis

Published: September 23,2022

By Staff writer

At the sidelines of the 77^th UN General assembly, world leaders met under the chairmanship of the United States government and brought members from the European Union, and the African Union. The meeting agreed to commit $4.7 billion to address the prevailing global food crisis.  

Observes criticized rich countries for not contributing enough when statistics from the world food programmeindicate that up to 828 million people go hungry across the world due to combined factors of conflict, COVID 19 and the climate crisis. 

To the contrary, early this year, the United States Congress approved $40 billion in aid for Ukraine and other countries affected by the conflict, and this was the sixth aid package since the war began. The $ 40 billion package was to be spent as follows; $19 billion for immediate military support to Ukraine, continuing the effort that has been vital to sustaining Ukrainian resistance, $3.9 billion to sustain U.S. forces deployed to Europe, $16 billion for economic support to Ukraine, global humanitarian relief, and a wide variety of international programs as well as $2 billion for long-term support to NATO allies and DOD modernization programs. How come that the US was less concerned on helping the hungry people? Is it because the countries affected by hunger are not in Europe? 

It seems we are living in a world of distorted priorities. The World Food Programme (WFP) requires US$24 billion to reach 153 million people in 2022, yet the funding is not forth coming. The US and EU countries will be more interested in funding the buying of military hardware for Ukraine than saving people whose lives are at stake due to hunger.  

The world food program called 2022 a year of unprecedented hunger, but the rich countries seem to be interested in sponsoring war than funding humanitarian activities including feeding millions of people that are in urgent need of food. The world needs to take action now to save the dying population for lack of food, medicine and other essential assistance.

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