The United Nations has warned that even if the Middle East war were to stop immediately, global humanitarian supply lines would not recover before 2027. Nearly 100 days after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, which triggered the conflict, the fallout extends far beyond the Middle East region, according to Jean-Cedric Meeus, chief of global transport and logistics for UNICEF.
“The disruption to the global humanitarian supply chain is impacting children across all the globe, with continued congestion in global supply chain routes and higher costs,” Meeus told a press conference in Geneva. Weeks of indirect US-Iran talks, threats, and air strikes have failed to end the war or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas.
“What begins like a disruption from lanes into the Middle East, the Hormuz Strait, spirals directly into humanitarian crisis,” said Meeus, speaking from Mogadishu, Somalia. “For UNICEF, persistent delays and high operational costs, when they come into the context of global funding crisis, are already causing impossible choices. Behind this cascading disruption is a simple but brutal equation,” he added, with every extra dollar spent on transport meaning less money spent on aid for children.
The logistics chief said air freight capacity had tightened across the Middle East, some airlines have stopped serving certain African destinations, and port congestion was spreading across Africa. He noted that air freight costs for vaccines from India to Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo had increased by 50 to 70 percent. “There are so many ripple effects on the humanitarian supply chain,” said Meeus.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with Iran were moving at a “rapid pace,” even as Tehran threatened to keep the Strait of Hormuz blocked. Even “if we come to an agreement and the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, the situation will not improve before the end of the year” for UNICEF’s supply lines, said Meeus.
