If the world does not manage to stem the serious food crisis caused by Russia, the record of 100 million uprooted people will increase by another“many people”warned the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
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“What is being done to respond to the food insecurity crisis (…) is critically important to prevent more people from being displaced”, insisted Filippo Grandi, during a press briefing. He doesn’t know how much “but it will be a large number”, underlined the High Commissioner, presenting the 2021 annual report of the organization he leads. The Russian-led war is depriving the world of grain and fertilizer, driving up prices and threatening millions of people around the world with hunger. “The impact, if not resolved quickly, will be devastating”alert Filippo Grandi, before recovering: “It is already devastating”.
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This catastrophe in the making occupies the ministerial meeting of the WTO, meeting in Geneva, as well as the session of the Human Rights Council and the highest authorities of the UN. At the end of 2021, the world had 89.3 million refugees and IDPs more than twice as many as 10 years ago, including 53.2 million IDPs and 27.1 million refugees. But Russia’s invasion has thrown between 12 and 14 million Ukrainians on the roads to seek refuge elsewhere in their country or abroad. A human flow which for the first time made cross, in May, the bar of 100 million uprooted people in the world. “Every year for the past decade the numbers have steadily increased”recalled Filippo Grandi. “Either the international community mobilizes to react to this human tragedy, to put an end to the conflicts and achieve lasting solutions, or this dramatic trend will continue”.