Impacts of the Russian – Ukraine conflict on Food Security in Africa

Abstract

The issue of food security has remained one of the major challenges in Nigeria, Africa and the world today and this cannot be over emphasized. Africa’s population have long been suffering from hunger due to an alarming rate of dwindling land and water resources as well as harsh climatic and natural conditions that has resulted in food insecurity. The objective of this paper is on the impact of the ongoing Russia – Ukraine conflict on food security in Africa. The paper posits that the inability of the continent to provide adequate food for its citizens has exposed it to the negative impact of the conflict. Thus, efforts by successive governments and institutions at achieving food security on the continent has not yielded the desired results which is evident in hunger, malnutrition and inadequate supply of basic food staples that pervade the continent. The study adopts descriptive and historical methodology and secondary data as evidence and anchors it analysis on the realist theory. Findings revealed that the impacts of the conflicts on food security in Africa is quiet severe since about 80 per cent of the continents food is dependent on food import. The paper therefore recommends that the governments and regional leaders must provide all the necessary funding, modern technology and infrastructure needed to achieve food security for the continent. Again, the global community must also employ diplomacy to bring the conflict to an end for the sake of humanity since both countries are global food producers.