During his visit to Italy to attend Rome MED Dialogues, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Badr Abdelatty met Monday Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Qu Dongyu.

Minister Abdelatty shed light on the high global hunger rates, regress in humanitarian funding, and recurrent crises in the Middle East and Africa, which requires concerting efforts among UN organizations to assist the peoples of those regions.

In a related context, the minister commended the strategic partnership between Egypt and FAO, given the former’s keenness on accomplishing food security. He also pointed out to the suggestion made by President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi at G20 for Egypt to house a grain center with the aim of serving all the region’s countries.

Minister Abdelatty noted that, despite the efforts deployed by the Egyptian government to achieve food security, it had been bearing the burdens of regional circumstances and “hosting over nine million refugees and migrants.”

The minister hailed FAO and other UN organizations for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip, Sudan, and Yemen in spite of the risks. He also shed light on the challenges faced by Egypt to supply aid to Gaza due to the Israeli practices aimed at using hunger as a weapon against Palestinians.