**3.3 Food access during war**

Food access becomes extremely critical when a country is under political stress. War is one of the events that create ripple effects on different countries outside the war scene. It demoralizes humanity that it could happen to any ordinary person in this situation. When a war happens in a country, its residents and business lose their ability to export and import food, which leads to low access to food for people in the war country, its neighbors, and importers. However, a war in one country can affect the whole world by affecting its food production as is the current case with Ukraine and the Russian war.

According to the world health organization, the Syria war that started on March 15, 2011, is the worst humanitarian crisis in the twenty-first century [53]. However, even before the war, people of Syria were having difficulties accessing freshwater 93% in urban areas and 86% in rural areas [53]. This war impacted people's lives, education, and health. The war complicated the access to food and water. It is documented that 90% of people of Syrians were having difficulties accessing food [53]. Moreover, one in seven children is not fed regularly [53]. Documented studies illustrate that 32% of children had signs of malnutrition [53]. Furthermore, approximately 62% of infants did not have access to the best substitute feeding [53].

The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 caused a food crisis in both countries [54]. These two countries are among the vulnerable countries to food security [54]. Before the war started, the world health organization warned that more than 16 million people are starving because of the drought, 50% in Ethiopia and the rest in Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda [54]. Moreover, 40% of Ethiopian farm households were in chronic food insecurity [54]. After the war started, food items prices increased, and that affected people's access [54]. Moreover, food was weaponized by soldiers, and farmers were stopped from harvesting their crops which led to food unavailability for people to access [55].

The recent food crisis is going on in the whole world in 2022. Because Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the country was not able to export its yield to its regular customers [56]. This limitation on exporting affected food security, fertilizer prices, and energy globally [57]. The FAO report on food cruises because of the war in 2022. In March 2022, food prices were higher than average by 29.8% compared to the previous year in 2021. Countries started hoarding food in fear of inflation and food crises. The effect of the war on food is greater in countries facing food insecurity, especially with the rise of people suffering insecurity from 768 million in 2020 to 869 million in 2022. Countries that export most of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Yemen are affected severely by the food shortage [34]. Moreover, countries were facing food insecurity and drought such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia [34]. Even before the war started, Ukraine and other countries were having high prices. Ukraine wheat prices were historically high because of energy and oil prices, drought, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the Russian and Ukraine war, both countries announced they are unable to export grains. Their announcement led to some panic buying and country hoarding.

Countries started to ban exporting their crops to protect their markets and make them available to their residents at controlled prices [58, 59]. For instance, India limited its wheat to deal with the loss of 15–20% of its crop because of the heat wave [34]. India is the second largest wheat producer, and Indonesia which produces 60% of the world's palm oil restricted limitations on these food goods [56]. Argentina banned beef, soybean, and soybean meal [57]. Russia banned sunflower seeds, wheat flour, and pasta [57]. Ghana banned the exportation of maize, rice, and soybean [56]. Algeria banned pasta, wheat, and vegetable oil [56]. Egypt banned vegetable oil, corn, wheat, wheat flour, and pasta [57]. Serbia banned wheat, corn, and wheat flour [57]. Kuwait banned grains and vegetable oil [57]. Other countries followed suit such as India, and they stopped their grain imports. Countries like Kazakhstan announced their limitation on flour and wheat on April 1, 2022, for 6 months [57]. Wheat producer countries in the black sea region have 30% of the wheat in storage to feed the world [34]. The loss of wheat from Ukraine could be filed by countries including India, Argentina, Australia, and Canada, but shipping prices are high due to energy prices [34].
