“If the world does not widen its gaze from the war in Ukraine and act immediately, an explosion of child deaths is about to happen in the Horn of Africa,” Dagash said.
She added that some of the countries that depend on wheat from Russia and Ukraine — like Somalia, which typically imported 92% of the grain from those nations — are receiving shipments because of Moscow’s blockade.
“The war is exacerbating spiraling global food and fuel prices,” Dagash said, “meaning many people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia can no longer afford the basic foodstuffs they need to survive.”
![Paramedics treat a Ukrainian injured serviceman in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) ORG XMIT: BA110]()
More than 4,200 civilians have been killed and 5,000 injured since the war began Feb. 24, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says. The agency says the actual figures are probably considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been ongoing has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.
The confirmed deaths include 1,617 men, 1,064 women, 100 girls and 105 boys, as well as 67 children and 1,300 adults whose gender is yet unknown, the agency said.
Most of the civilian casualties were caused by “explosive weapons with a wide impact area,” including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes, the agency said.
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