The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that Sudan faces a severe risk of sliding back into deeper hunger, driven by a combination of ongoing conflict, sharp reductions in aid funding, and rising agricultural costs linked to global shipping disruptions.
The agency highlighted that supply chain pressures stemming from the Iran war and instability in the Strait of Hormuz are significantly inflating the cost of food imports and agricultural inputs.
These external market shocks are compounding the internal devastation caused by the civil war, threatening to undo recent progress made in stabilizing food security in parts of the country that had previously faced famine conditions.
This development underscores the widening ripple effects of Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions on global trade routes.
While markets have focused on the direct impact of Hormuz disruptions on oil prices and tanker freight rates, the WFP’s assessment reveals a critical secondary channel: the transmission of energy and logistics costs to vulnerable import-dependent economies.
The rising cost of grain and fertilizer imports is eroding the purchasing power of humanitarian aid budgets, making it harder to deliver sufficient calories to affected populations.