The conflict in the Middle East and wider region is obstructing key delivery routes for humanitarian supplies, delaying lifesaving medical shipments for at least 410,000 children in three countries, said Save the Children, warning the global impact will only grow [1].
The escalating conflict is having dire ripple effects on global aid supplies due to disruptions to key air, sea and land routes, with shipping costs expected to skyrocket about 10 to 50% to reroute aid in some cases.
As a result, Save the Children's lifesaving aid intended for children and their families in Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan is currently stuck in the Middle East.
One shipment of medical supplies bound for Sudan is currently stuck in Dubai due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global waterway for shipping. The delay puts more than 90 primary health care facilities across Sudan at risk of running out of essential medicines.
The medical supplies, intended to support over 400,000 children in Sudan, include antibiotics, antimalarials, deworming treatments, pain and fever medicines, as well as vitamins and key injectable and pediatric formulations used in routine and emergency treatment.
Further, rising fuel prices will push up the already-staggering inflation rates across Sudan. As transport and import costs increase, so too will the price of food, commodities and cost of doing business. This will not only add burden to delivering humanitarian assistance but also deepen the hardship faced by millions in Sudan struggling to meet their basic needs.
Save the Children is exploring alternative routes to deliver the supplies to Sudan, including transporting the supplies by road across Jeddah where we will then use sea freight to get it to Port Sudan, which could add US$1,000–$2,000 per container in costs.
Conflict-related disruptions have also driven up the cost of delivering critical nutrition supplies to Afghanistan. The nutrition supplies, intended to support 5,000 children and 1,400 pregnant and breastfeeding women, would have been shipped from India via Iran but now have to arrive by air at a cost of over US$240,000 - more than the value of the supplies. Without the supplies, nutrition programmes risk running out of stock and closing, leaving children facing acute hunger and malnutrition without treatment.
