The first UN ship with food aid since the beginning of the war with Ukraine arrived in the Bosphorus, bound for Africa as part of an agreement to resume the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

Maritime traffic monitoring websites showed the MV Brave Commander carrying 23 tons of wheat off the coast of Istanbul after it left the Ukrainian port of Pevdeni on the Black Sea on Tuesday.

The Turkish Coast Guard expects a Lebanese-flagged cargo ship to arrive in the Sea of ​​Marmara south of the Bosphorus on Wednesday evening before departing for its final destination, Djibouti, next week. There, the grain will be transported to trucks for delivery to war and famine-stricken Ethiopia in a World Food Program-sponsored operation.

The World Food Programme, which relies heavily on grain produced in southeastern Ukraine, estimates that 345 million people face “acute food insecurity” in 82 countries.