Now "Ayan Hassan Abdulrahman" pays twice what she did just a few months ago to buy the wheat flour she uses to prepare breakfast every day for her eleven children in the Somali capital.

Almost all the wheat sold in Somalia comes from Ukraine and Russia, which have stopped exports across the Black Sea since Moscow launched a war on its neighbor on February 24.

Abdulrahman is trying to manage this by replacing millet, another easily available grain, in her flatbread. However, inflation means that the price of cooking oil, which she still needs, has also risen; the bottle that cost $16 is now sold for $45 in Mogadishu markets.

She says, "The cost of living is high right now, making it difficult for families even to buy flour and oil."

Haji Abdi Diblawi, the businessman who imports wheat flour into Somalia, fears the situation will worsen: there is also a looming shortage of shipping containers to bring food supplies from elsewhere at the moment.

He says, "There is no place for Somalis to grow wheat, and we are not familiar with how to grow it. Our main concern now is what the future holds for us when our current supplies run out."

18 million people face severe hunger in the Sahel region, a part of Africa located just below the Sahara, where farmers are experiencing their worst agricultural production in over a decade.

The United Nations World Food Programme says food shortages could worsen when the late summer dry season arrives.

"Acute hunger is rising to unprecedented levels and the global situation is getting worse. Conflict, climate crisis, COVID-19, and high food and fuel costs have resulted in a perfect storm, and now we have the war in Ukraine.

WFP Executive Director David Beasley warned earlier this month. UNICEF says even the cost of therapeutic food for children suffering from malnutrition could rise by 16% over the next six months due to the war in Ukraine and pandemic-related disruptions.

African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to UN figures.

The African Development Bank has already announced a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent, making everything from couscous in Mauritania to fried cakes sold in Congo more expensive.

Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the African Union, who said he would travel to Russia and Ukraine to discuss price issues, stated, "Africa has no control over production chains or logistics and is completely at the mercy of the current situation."

Russian President Vladimir Putin pressured the West last week to lift sanctions on Moscow due to the war in Ukraine, attempting to shift blame from Russia to the West for the growing global food crisis exacerbated by Ukraine's inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products while under attack.

Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Moscow "is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis by exporting grain and fertilizers provided that the politically motivated restrictions imposed by the West are lifted," according to the Kremlin.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out that food, fertilizers, and seeds are exempt from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and many other countries on Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has accused Russia of looting grain and agricultural equipment from territories controlled by its forces. A Russian official in southern Ukraine confirmed that grain from last year's crop there was sent to buyers in Russia, according to a report published Monday by Russian news agency TASS.

This grain does not make its way to Africa. In Cameroon, baker Sylvester Ako says he has seen his daily customers drop from 300 a day to only 100 since bread prices jumped 40% due to a shortage of wheat imports.

He has already let three of his seven employees go and fears he will have to shut down his business in Yaoundé entirely unless something changes.

Ako said, "The price of a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of wheat now sells for $60 - about $30 higher, and supplies are irregular."

Alongside the shortage of wheat imports, the African Development Bank also warns of a potential 20% drop in food production on the continent because farmers have to pay 300% more for imported fertilizers.

The organization says it plans to address these issues through a $1.5 billion plan that will provide farmers in Africa with certified seeds, fertilizers, and other aid.

Reducing dependence on foreign imports is part of the strategy, but such economic shifts are likely to take years, not months.