US-Israeli war against Iran pushing millions into hunger: WFP

The United Nations food relief organization has warned that the US-Israeli war on Iran is pushing millions of people in the West Asian region into hunger.

"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," said a story run by UN News on Thursday.

The story warned that the danger of humanitarian disaster is looming over the region due to the broken supply chain caused by the unwarranted US-Israeli war on Iran.

"Despite a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran, sporadic hostilities and continued uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz continue to reverberate through global supply chains, pushing up transport and fuel costs and straining aid operations already grappling with severe funding shortfalls," .

UN's World Food Program (WFP) projected that 45 million people could fall into acute food insecurity if the conflict continued and oil prices remained around $100 a barrel through July.

WFP raised concern that an additional 45 million people could be pushed into hunger because of the close relationship between energy and food prices.

Already, the pressure is mounting, WFP said, sounding the alarm.

Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, WFP's Acting Executive Director Carl Skau said warnings issued earlier in the crisis about the knock-on effects of higher energy prices were now materializing 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,” Skau told reporters.

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, WFP warned.

Skau pointed out that the drivers differed from country to country. However, generally speaking there has been a hike in food prices, joined with underfunded humanitarian responses, and sharply higher operating costs, that all together reduce the number of people that the aid agencies can extend aid to and reach with available resources.

Skau foresees the longer-term outlook as equally troubling. He warned that higher fertilizer costs could reduce agricultural productivity in east Africa during the coming planting season, resulting in more food shortages months from now.

The effects of the shortages are said to be increasingly visible in humanitarian supply chains.

In the meantime, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned 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.

Meeus warned that, “What begins as a disruption to shipping lanes can spiral into a humanitarian crisis.”

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched the unprovoked war against Iran with the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders.

The Iranian Armed Forces responded by carrying out 100 waves of counterattacks over 40 days, targeting US and Israeli military assets, which resulted in significant damage.

On April 8, Pakistani mediators succeeded in closing a two-week ceasefire deal has been renewed till now.

Tehran has made clear that any initial agreement with Washington to end the war hinges on the lifting of the US naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials have argued that the continued blockade constitutes a violation of the truce.

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