The Iran war could increase the pressure on the cash-strapped UN's World Food Programme by raising food prices and operating costs, its deputy executive director Carl Skau has warned.
Last year, the agency, which operates in 80 countries, lost 40 per cent of its funding and was forced to fire about 6,000 staff. Those cuts have had deadly consequences – children have died from severe malnutrition in Afghanistan, where the agency reduced its operations.
Discussing the humanitarian effects of the Iran war during a stop-over in Paris, Mr Skau said he believed the number of people facing acute food insecurity would increase. At least 318 million people in the world are at immediate risk of hunger.
Surge in prices
"That's what we expect to happen, because during Covid, during the financial crisis in 2008, we saw exactly that: prices hiking ... but it's in those countries where there are no margins that it really hits people's ability to cope," Mr Skau said at a meeting organised by the Anglo-American Press Association.
Rising fuel prices also increases the cost of WFP operations. "For the same money, you get less," Mr Skau said in response to a question from The National.
He added that some shipment companies have given the agency an exemption from war risk surcharges, which will save it "several millions of dollars". But that remains a temporary measure.
World Food Programme
Oil prices fell on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump said the war would end "very soon". Prices reached nearly $120 a barrel on Monday before falling back.
Yet traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's oil is typically shipped, has ground to a halt, after Iran threatened to attack vessels in the waterway.
Tehran warned it will not allow "one litre of oil" to leave the region if the US and Israeli attacks continue, after fuel depots outside Tehran were hit. G7 states have discussed releasing strategic oil reserves to help stabilise prices.
While funding cuts by the US administration have been the most widely publicised, other major donors, including Germany and France, have also reduced donations to the agency.
Major Global South states, such as India and Indonesia, have increased contributions, but that has not been enough to plug the gap left by western donors.
"You would wish that humanitarian imperative, that children are dying, solidarity would do the job," Mr Skau said. "It's not like we don't know, or that people are not informed, but it doesn't seem to be doing the job sufficiently."
'Bizarre' accusations
"What we need to also speak to is that this is in the self-interest of everyone. Food security equals stability and it's clear that, where people are hungry, that also drives instability and that's having a big impact across borders," Mr Skau said.
"We don't want to be, kind of fearmongering, [but] it's clear that those links exist and that should be evident to all governments."
Being a humanitarian has also never been so dangerous. In January, the WFP announced it would halt operations in large parts of Houthi-controlled Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, because of harassment by the Iran-backed rebels.
At least 38 WFP employees have been detained by the Houthis over "bizarre" accusations of being spies for Israel, Mr Skau said. One died in detention in Yemen, which is in the grip of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
"Some of these colleagues have worked in Gaza and had been shot at and now they're being locked up in Sanaa, in cells," Mr Skau said. "No one really seems to have leverage. I've been to Muscat several times. We spoke to the Iranians, countries in the region, but it's just impossible."
