Egypt is Africa’s largest importer of wheat, and Russia and Ukraine are its two largest suppliers, according to World’s Top Exports. Already on March 11, with the conflict not even three weeks old, Reuters ran a headline, that “Africa Could Be Hit Hard by Loss of Ukrainian Grain Exports,” which reported that Egypt and Tunisia were the two countries most dependent on imported wheat from Eastern Europe.
A week later, after a “market-driven” devaluation of its currency, Egypt’s el-Sisi administration was forced to intervene on the price of bread—the staple food—which had doubled in a matter of days. Recognizing this threat to regional stability, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E. quickly came up with a combined $23 billion in aid for Egypt, in order to preserve regional stability. Not only has the war disrupted Egypt’s food sources, but also its foreign income, as a significant portion of its tourist money had come from visiting Russians.