From food lines in Somalia to clinics in Afghanistan, Hormuz crisis sends shockwaves through global aid networks

Key points

• 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.
• Real consequences 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.
• © NASA/GSFC/Jacques Descloitres Hunger rising Several weeks ago, WFP warned that if oil prices remained above $100 a barrel through July, as many as 45 million...