Japan to provide $14 million for the export of Ukrainian wheat to Somalia

Japan has pledged an Emergency Grant Aid of $14 million to provide food support to Somalia in light of the devastating drought in the Horn of African country.

In a statement on Friday, the Japanese government said the aid “will allow the implementation of humanitarian assistance activities through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) so that Ukrainian wheat donated by the Ukrainian government will be transported to Somalia and distributed to populations in need of food assistance.”

The statement added, “Japan, in close cooperation with all interested parties, continues to help countries in which the food crisis is worsening, caused by the rise in prices, particularly for wheat, as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Such assistance in various regions of Africa is also very important from the point of view of the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Space”.”

The ongoing war in Ukraine has caused a global wheat shortage as Ukraine is among world’s largest producers of wheat.

This has worsened the food crisis in drought-ridden Somalia.