Ukraine Ships 57,000 Tons of Grain to Sudan, Nigeria

Ukraine is set to ship 57,000 tons of grain to Sudan and Nigeria as part of the "Grains from Ukraine" humanitarian food program, according to the Ukrainian National News Agency.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between the Deputy Minister of Ukrainian Agricultural Policy and the Deputy Minister of Food with Karl Skau, the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme.

Sudan will receive 32,000 tons, while Nigeria will receive 25,000 tons of grain, as reported by the news agency.

Both parties are also considering the feasibility of sending humanitarian grain shipments from Ukraine to Somalia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the "Grains from Ukraine" program at the G20 meeting in Bali in 2022 as a strategy to encourage humanitarian shipments to countries in need and support Ukrainian grain farmers.

The program was officially launched in November 2022 during the Food Security Summit in Kyiv.

Africa has been severely impacted by reduced grain shipments from Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, coupled with rising prices as stocks run low.

The war has also disrupted food shipments from both Ukraine and Russia, which are crucial for Africa.

In a similar effort to alleviate the crisis, President Vladimir Putin assured some African leaders in July that he would provide tens of thousands of tons of grain to help address food shortages.

However, the African Union has stressed that a ceasefire in Ukraine is necessary to restore grain supplies to normalcy, and the continent's leaders have made visits to both Ukraine and Russia to call for an end to the conflict.