Somalia: From Food Lines in Somalia to Clinics in Afghanistan, Hormuz Crisis Sends Shockwaves Through Global Aid Networks

What began as a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East nearly 100 days ago is increasingly becoming a food security crisis elsewhere, with UN agencies warning of rising hunger in Africa and malnourished children being turned away from medical clinics in Afghanistan.

Despite a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran, sporadic hostilities and continued uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's most important energy and shipping corridors - continue to reverberate through global supply chains, pushing up transport and fuel costs and straining aid operations already grappling with severe funding shortfalls.

Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, World Food Programme (WFP) Acting Executive Director Carl Skau said warnings issued earlier in the crisis about the knock-on effects of higher energy prices were now materialising in some of the world's most vulnerable countries.

"Just to illustrate that what we warned against is now playing out in real time in many of these contexts," he told reporters.

Several weeks ago, WFP warned that if oil prices remained above $100 a barrel through July, as many as 45 million additional people could be pushed into hunger because of the close relationship between energy and food prices.

That pressure is already mounting: an additional 2.5 million people in Somalia have become acutely food insecure, while a further 2.3 million people have been pushed into acute hunger in Afghanistan and another 1.3 million in Sri Lanka.

The drivers differ from country to country, Mr. Skau said, but include rising food prices, underfunded humanitarian responses and sharply higher operating costs that reduce the number of people aid agencies can reach with available resources.

The effects are increasingly visible in humanitarian supply chains.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns that maritime diversions around the Cape of Good Hope are adding between two and four weeks to shipping times, while air freight capacity across Middle Eastern routes has tightened and congestion is spreading through ports in Africa and elsewhere.

"Increased transport costs mean less money for the lifesaving supplies children need," said Jean-Cédric Meeus, UNICEF's Chief of Global Transport and Logistics.

According to UNICEF, air freight costs for vaccines shipped from India to Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have risen by up to 70 per cent. Trucking costs for lifesaving therapeutic food destined for Somalia, South Sudan and the DRC have also increased by a third.

Sea freight costs for