Officials at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and the Mennonite Central Committee are getting ready to once again face the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
They know that war, famine, pestilence and death may soon hit Iraq.
Even though they are ready to act to mitigate the human suffering that war always brings, they don’t know what they’ll be called on to do.
“We’ve been doing our best to project various scenarios, but at the end of the day this is a very wide open situation,” said Rick Janzen, the Mennonite Central Committee’s co-director of Middle East programs. “We have no idea what will happen.”
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The MCC has made and stored tents in Iraq in case refugee camps are needed. It has also sent “school kits” from Canada to Iraq so refugees can set up schools for displaced children.
Medicine is being bought in Jordan and shipped to Iraq, Janzen said.
Jim Cornelius, the executive director of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, said his organization is ready to act if there are calls for Canadian grain.
“We’re monitoring the situation but we’re not taking any specific actions, such as prepositioning food, because it’s so uncertain as to what may happen,” said Cornelius.
“We’ll just simply have to respond when events unfold.”
The foodgrains bank has sent Canadian wheat flour to Iraq since 1997. Special nutritional biscuits for pregnant women, nursing mothers and small children are made from the flour.
“It’s a very targeted program that’s aimed at sustaining a very vulnerable population,” said Cornelius.
Canadian grain has also been flowing to North Korea, Ethiopia (where 9,700 tonnes of Canadian grain are being shipped right now) and a host of other trouble spots.
Countries like North Korea and Ethiopia are suffering from droughts and grain production problems, but Iraq, which has struggled with hunger for years, could face severe problems if a war breaks out. War mixes a witch’s brew of calamities.
“Famine is related to drought, it’s related to conflict, and it’s related to political instability,” said Cornelius.
“If you ever get all three together then you’ve got real problems.”
