: Empty shelves and rising prices linked to Ukraine crisis push Tunisians to the brink #IndiaNEWS #International For many Tunisians, shortages of essential foods, fuel and key farming products linked

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Empty shelves and rising prices linked to Ukraine crisis push Tunisians to the brink #IndiaNEWS #International
For many Tunisians, shortages of essential foods, fuel and key farming products linked to the war in Ukraine, have tested them to the limit, they’ve been telling UN News.









“There is no sugar, I have to take a taxi very far away to buy one kilogramme of sugar,� one woman explains in frustration, at a market in Kairouan, a town several hours drive south of the capital, Tunis.
“The prices are going up! Poor people can no longer afford anything. It is like the world is on fire,� another woman explains, as she opens her purse to pay for a bagful of tomatoes, jumbled together on a wooden cart by the side of the road.
Surprise appeal
Nodding his head in agreement, the stallholder takes her money and makes an astonishing, if discreet, appeal. “Please, make it easier for us to migrate across the sea, so we can leave,� he says.
Although the elderly customer scoffs at the idea – “He wants to drown! He wants to drown!� – for many younger Tunisians, leaving the country in search of work and security is a frequent topic of conversation.
This is despite the fact that many thousands of people have died trying to cross the Central Mediterranean Sea from North African nations to Europe on unsafe boats in recent years, and regular TV news reports that announce yet another missing person or family at sea.



Unsplash/Adrian Dascal

Downtown Tunis, Tunisia.

Migration pressures
“I think what the crisis in Ukraine has brought up again, is the hard choices that people have to make on a daily basis, because people forced to flee their homes, people forced to flee their country, are not taking that decision lightly,� says Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
For many Tunisians, it remains a challenge to source basic staples, although more than 85,000 metric tonnes of Ukrainian wheat have arrived in Tunisian ports in the two months since the Black Sea Grain Initiative kicked into action, its Joint Coordination Centre in Odesa, said on Thursday.
The agreement was described as a “beacon of hope� by UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the signing ceremony for the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 27 July in Istanbul, with representatives from Russian and Ukraine.
Since 1 August, 240 vessels have sailed from Ukrainian ports with some 5. 4 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs.



Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Spreading the load
At an enormous mill in the Tunisian capital, there’s an abundance of flour, as workers stand under a conveyor belt which transports an apparently endless supply of semolina, packaged up into large, heavy-duty plastic sacks.

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