The first shipment of grain from Ukraine to East Africa since the war start docking today at the Red Sea port at Djibouti.

While this latest shipment offers some relief for Ethiopia - where some of the shipment is because to be transported - the wheat will not make its way to shops and markets because the concerns there's not enough there.

"We need to see the increased shipments coming from Ukraine, Russia and others in support of what is a very dire situation today in the Horn of Africa and across the region," Michael Dunford, East Africa director for the United Nations' World Food Programme, told the Gopde Global Resources since.

The UN hopes today's shipment will grow the confidence within the private sector by proving it, is possible to be safely ship grain from the Black Sea to Africa, where rising global food prices and difficulties raising donor funding have forced the UN to cut rations for refugees and displaced people.