Thursday February 2, 2023
By Iain Marlow
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks with Bloomberg’s Margaret Collins.Source: Bloomberg
The US is doing all it can to avert a new famine in Somalia, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
“We’re doing everything possible to help to avert this but people die even when there’s not a famine so the work that we have to do is really continuing,” Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview Wednesday at Bloomberg’s Washington headquarters.
Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the disruption it’s had on the global food supply has had “a devastating impact on hunger in Africa as well in the Middle East.”
The ambassador also said African nations had been making progress in reducing their debt burden but “China came in and re-indebted some of these countries.”
Thomas-Greenfield, whose diplomatic career included service in Africa, cited US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to the continent last month as part of the US effort to provide support.