Humanitarian organisations are urging the establishment of a protected corridor through the Strait of Hormuz after disruptions linked to the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran pushed oil prices sharply higher and blocked or delayed shipments of food, medicine and other relief supplies.
Bob Kitchen, vice-president for emergencies at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), called for “serious and immediate conversations about humanitarian corridors through the Strait of Hormuz” so supplies stuck in regional hubs can reach people in need. The IRC says shipping interruptions prevented access to $130,000 worth of supplies held in Dubai that were earmarked for 20,000 people in Sudan. In Nigeria and Ethiopia, government oil rationing has forced the IRC to limit generator use at health clinics; Kitchen warned that hospitals may have to cut electricity to less critical areas to preserve power for vital services.
Aid agencies report rapidly rising operational costs as fuel and transport bills climb. “It is more expensive to buy fuel to run our operations, moving commodities, moving personnel around many of the countries in sub‑Saharan Africa,” Kitchen said. Cecile Terraz, director at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, added that the oil-price rise is already affecting both people’s lives and humanitarian operations.
Since the conflict began in February, oil rose from about $60 a barrel at the start of the year to a peak near $120 a barrel as the US and Iran alternately closed and blockaded the 5 km‑wide passage. The constrained flow of ships has reduced global supplies of oil, food, fertilizer and medicine and pushed prices up; the current price is around $111 a barrel. Many large aid organisations, already coping with donor cuts, are particularly exposed because humanitarian goods are often exported from hubs such as India and Dubai to communities in need across Africa and Asia.
Save the Children estimates that every $5 increase per barrel of oil costs the charity an additional $340,000 a month in shipping, fuel, food and medical supplies — roughly a month of aid for nearly 40,000 children. If oil remains around $100 for the rest of 2026, the charity says the extra cost this year would be about $27 million. The World Food Programme (WFP) warns the disruption could leave 45 million more people hungry, on top of the 318 million already classed as food insecure before the February attacks. “We are being squeezed from both ends. While world leaders are cutting aid budgets, conflict is driving up the cost of every shipment, every sachet of food, every medical kit we send,” said Willem Zuidema, Save the Children’s director of global supply.
Cuts to government aid have compounded the crisis: the US reduced foreign assistance by 57% in 2025, and UK aid last year was at its lowest level since 2008. Norway, Germany and France have also trimmed budgets. That mix of higher costs and reduced funding is forcing agencies to scale back programmes and rethink logistics.
On the ground, the effects are already severe. In Yemen, where nearly half the population needs aid, shipping costs have risen by up to 20% and food prices by about 30%, according to Save the Children. In Somalia, Robyn Savage, CARE’s humanitarian director, said the cost of importing medications for acute malnutrition in children has tripled since the conflict began, leaving fewer supplies available and fewer children able to be treated. The WFP reports that basic food prices in Somalia have risen by roughly 20%.
Elsewhere, a typical basket of goods in Myanmar has risen by 19%. In landlocked Afghanistan the cost of getting food in has tripled; fortified biscuits that normally arrive via the Strait of Hormuz now take a road route through seven countries from Dubai to Afghanistan to avoid the strait, adding about three weeks to delivery times. John Aylieff, WFP’s Afghanistan country director, warned that Afghan children are going hungry as a result and that many could die. The WFP also told partners that the oil-price rise would prevent it from reaching an estimated 1.5 million people in the coming months. The agency is working to reroute roughly 93,000 tonnes of food and nutrition supplies — including fortified biscuits and supplements for urgent needs such as Sudanese refugees — at significant extra cost and delay.
Maritime supply chains have been lengthened dramatically. Shipments from manufacturing hubs near Mumbai that once sailed via Bab el‑Mandeb and Port Sudan to Oman and Jeddah are now rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope or through the Mediterranean and Suez, adding roughly 9,000 km and several weeks to journeys. On land, NGOs feel the strain too: BRAC staff in Bangladesh report spending five hours a week queueing for rationed fuel, reducing time available for direct work in refugee communities.
Beyond immediate relief, the crisis threatens next season’s food production. Planting is under way in Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Ethiopia; shortages of fertilizer and fuel will limit farmers’ ability to plant and harvest, worsening food insecurity, said Nick Jones‑Bannister of Mercy Corps. The UN estimates that up to 45% of the world’s seeds and fertilizers depend on access through the Strait of Hormuz — shortages and higher costs could ripple into civil unrest and migration.
Because of these cascading effects, aid organisations argue a humanitarian corridor is essential to guarantee the passage of food, medicine and life‑saving supplies, stabilise supply chains and buy time while diplomatic efforts pursue a broader resolution.