Middle East Crisis Threatens UNICEF Aid Deliveries
Disrupted supply chains and rising transport costs linked to the crisis in the Middle East are threatening the distribution of life-saving aid for children, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
Nearly 100 days since the outbreak of war with Iran, increased insecurity on important shipping routes in the Gulf has pushed up fuel prices and insurance premiums. The situation has been worsened by congestion at alternative ports, slowing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
UNICEF is therefore increasingly turning to air transport. In the first quarter alone, it almost exhausted the annual contributions of its logistics partners for charter flights after having to airlift supplies to Lebanon and Gaza. Delays in sea transport there amounted to four to six weeks.
The agency estimates that some deliveries are now delayed by up to six months. Diverting ships around the Cape of Good Hope is extending shipments by another two to four weeks. UNICEF is also using airlifts in its response to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rising costs are also hitting humanitarian programme budgets. In Mali, transport costs increased by 36% in the first quarter, while transporting therapeutic food from Kenya to Somalia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo became 30% more expensive.
For the polio vaccination campaign in Nigeria, rerouting syringe shipments cost an additional $200,000, an increase of 56%.