The war in Ukraine has sent commodity prices soaring, creating shock waves across poorer countries already hard hit by the pandemic. The UN has warned "profound social anxiety" was spreading – especially in North Africa and the Middle East.

Grain exports from the ‘world’s breadbasket’ — Russia and Ukraine — are drying up, creating a food catastrophe for the developing world.

Layal Aswad was already exhausted by Lebanon’s devastating two-year economic collapse.