The United Nations food agency said the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran threatened to drive up the number of people suffering from acute hunger by tens of millions worldwide, potentially reaching record levels.
Disruption of shipping lanes since the start of the war on Feb. 28 is already delaying deliveries of lifesaving food aid. Shipping costs have risen 18 percent. And higher oil prices are driving up the agency’s operating costs, Carl Skau, the World Food Program’s deputy executive director and operations chief, told reporters.
Around 319 million people already suffer from acute hunger. That represents a threefold increase in the last five years, and the food agency estimates that if the wider Middle East war goes on through June, it would push another 45 million people into acute hunger.
“This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record, and it’s a terrible, terrible prospect,” Mr. Skau said. “The consequences are falling on the world’s most vulnerable people who are already living in dire conditions.”
The war came at a time when donors, including the United States, had slashed aid funding, prompting the food agency to reduce rations to people hit by famine in Sudan, Mr. Skau said. In Afghanistan, where children are dying of malnutrition, W.F.P. cut the number of people receiving food aid from 8 million last year to about 1.5 million. It now reaches about one-quarter of the country’s acutely malnourished children.
Moreover, the Iran war’s disruption of fertilizer supplies from the Gulf, which accounts for about a quarter of world fertilizer production, risks pushing up costs of food production and lowering crop yields. That would lead to higher food prices next year, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, Mr. Skau said.
“Taken together, the spike in global food and fuel costs could leave millions of families priced out of stable food,” he said.
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