By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, May 1 (Reuters) – The cost of sending some aid to Sudan – the world’s largest displacement crisis – has more than doubled since the Iran war disrupted shipping, pushing up transport costs and delaying deliveries, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.
Heightened insecurity around key Gulf shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, along with port congestion, rising fuel prices and higher insurance premiums have hampered aid deliveries, particularly to Africa, the agency said.
“People in dire need are receiving things that are ready later than what’s needed,” UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Wolf told reporters in Geneva.
Aid shipments that previously travelled from Dubai through the Strait of Hormuz are being rerouted, with supplies moved overland and shipped via Aqaba in Jordan for deliveries to Chad, and via Oman for shipments to Port Sudan, she said.
These shorter routes are being prioritised because shipping goods via the Cape of Good Hope into Sudan would add about 25 days to delivery times, she added.
Transport costs for moving 2,018 metric tons of relief items from Dubai to Sudan and neighbouring Chad via these routes have more than doubled, rising to $1.87 million from $927,000, Wolf said. The U.N. routinely describes the humanitarian crisis caused by Sudan’s war as the world’s largest.
INCREASED RELIANCE ON OVERLAND ROUTES
Dubai hosts UNHCR’s largest global stockpile of relief items. It is one of seven worldwide, with others in Copenhagen, Nairobi, Douala, Accra, Panama City and Termez.
Beyond disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, congestion at major ports, including Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Mersin in Turkey, and sharply higher war-risk insurance premiums – estimated at between 0.5% and 1.5% of cargo value for Gulf transits – are adding pressure, Wolf said.
Greater reliance on overland routes is also fuelling truck shortages and higher transport costs, she added.
In Nairobi, Kenya, fuel prices have risen by around 15%, triggering delays and reducing the availability of trucks for shipments to Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, the agency said.
The disruptions come as UNHCR faces severe funding constraints following global donor cuts, with its $8.5 billion appeal to assist 135 million refugees and displaced people only 23% funded.
“Every dollar that is spent additionally on transportation is $1 less that we can provide to people forcibly on the ground, or less people that we can support,” Wolf said.
The UNHCR also warned that rising fuel prices and fertiliser shortages were driving up food costs, worsening hardship for people in need.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin. Editing by Aidan Lewis and Mark Potter)
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