Addis Ababa - The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday disclosed that the first United Nations-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian wheat has arrived in Djibouti.
“The first WFP ship to carry Ukrainian grain since February has just arrived in Djibouti,” WFP executive director David Beasley said in a Twitter post.
“Now, let us get this wheat offloaded and on to Ethiopia,” Beasley added.
We have officially docked! The first @WFP ship to carry Ukrainian grain since February has just arrived in #Djibouti. Now, let’s get this wheat offloaded and on to #Ethiopia. #BlackSeaGrainInitiative pic.twitter.com/bfXxAV116v
— David Beasley (@WFPChief) August 30, 2022
According to the WFP, the ship arrived in the Red Sea nation of Djibouti after 14 days at sea, carrying 23,000 tons of wheat from Ukraine.
The WFP said the wheat will be used to support its humanitarian response in Ethiopia, where over 20 million people face hunger.
The WFP, when announcing that the ship had left the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in Yuzhny, Odesa province on August 16, had warned that the Horn of Africa “is just one of many regions reeling from the near-complete halt of Ukrainian food exports.”
"WFP and other humanitarians hope the most vital maritime traffic now resuming in and out of Ukraine's Black Sea ports will help ease global supply disruptions that are disproportionately hitting the poorest,“ the WFP said.
Xinhua