Calls for humanitarian corridor through Strait of Hormuz as Iran conflict threatens essential aid

Soaring oil prices and blockades are preventing food, fuel, and medicine from reaching millions in dire need, according to NGOs.

The volatility of global oil prices caused by the US and Israel's war against Iran is harming the most vulnerable by slowing or blocking food and medical aid from reaching them.

Now, aid agencies are calling for a "humanitarian corridor" through the Strait of Hormuz amid soaring transport costs.

Bob Kitchen, vice president for emergencies at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), called for "serious and immediate discussions about a humanitarian corridor through the Strait of Hormuz so that we can at least move supplies currently stuck at humanitarian hubs through the strait to where they are needed."

Essential medicines cannot leave major hubs. The shipping disruption has prevented the IRC from accessing $130,000 ($96,000) worth of supplies stuck in Dubai that 20,000 people in Sudan need. In Nigeria and Ethiopia, government fuel rationing schemes force the emergency relief agency to limit generator use in its clinics. "In some parts of the hospital, we would have to turn off power to maintain more important functions [if this continues]," Kitchen said.

He said aid agencies are burning through budgets quickly. "The cost of buying fuel to run operations, transport goods, move personnel across multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa has increased," he said.

Cecile Terraz, director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: "The reality here is that 100% of the impact of rising oil prices is affecting people's lives and our operations."

Since the conflict began in February, oil prices have fluctuated, peaking at nearly $120 a barrel, up from $60 at the start of the year, as the US and Iran alternately closed and blockaded the shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Restricting the number of cargo ships passing through the 5-km wide strait has had a massive global impact, reducing the supply of oil, food, fertilizer, and medicine while driving up prices of available goods. Current prices for oil, the main fuel source, are near $111 a barrel.

Major aid agencies, still reeling from US and European funding cuts, have been hit hard, as many ship humanitarian products including food and medicine from hubs in India and Dubai to communities in need, many of them in Africa.

Save the Children estimates show that for every $5 increase per barrel of oil, the organization incurs an additional $340,000 a month in transport, fuel, food, and medical supply costs compared with its beginning-of-year budget. That figure is equivalent to a month of aid for nearly 40,000 children, according to Willem Zuidema, the group's global supply chain director. If oil prices stay around $100 for all of 2026, the group will spend an extra $27 million this year, he said.

The disruption means an additional 45 million people could go hungry, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), on top of the 318 million already considered food insecure before the attacks in February.

"We are being squeezed from both sides. While world leaders cut aid budgets, conflict is driving up the cost of every shipment, every bag of food, every medical kit we send," Zuidema said.

The US cut foreign aid by 57% in 2025, while UK aid last year was at its lowest since 2008. Norway, Germany, and France have all cut their aid budgets.

In Yemen, where after more than a decade of war nearly half the population needs aid, shipping costs have risen by up to 20% due to fuel costs, according to Save the Children estimates. Food prices there have risen 30%.

In Somalia, Robyn Savage, humanitarian director at Care, said the cost of importing critical medicines to treat acute malnutrition in children has tripled since the conflict began. "That means there will be fewer medicines available for those children, and that will lead to fewer children being treated," she said.

The country, which is experiencing severe drought, has also seen prices of basic food items rise 20% as fuel costs drive up transport costs, according to the WFP.

In Myanmar, the cost of a basket of goods has risen 19%. And the cost of getting food into landlocked Afghanistan has tripled, said John Aylieff, WFP country director in Afghanistan.

The WFP's fortified biscuits supplies must be trucked through seven countries from Dubai to Afghanistan to avoid the usual route through the Strait of Hormuz, taking three weeks longer than normal. "Afghan children are going hungry today because of it," Aylieff said, warning that many could die.

Another WFP spokesperson, the world's largest humanitarian organization, said the agency estimates that rising oil prices mean it will be unable to reach about 1.5 million people worldwide in the coming months. The UN agency is working to reroute about 93,000 tonnes of food, such as fortified biscuits and supplementary food, intended for communities in urgent need, including refugees from the war in Sudan – the world's largest humanitarian emergency – causing significant costs and delays. They explained that not only are ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz stuck, but all vessels in the region are affected by maritime congestion.

For example, supplies from manufacturing hubs in India usually go from a port near Mumbai to Oman, then to Jeddah via the Bab el-Mandeb strait and onto Port Sudan. Now, due to risk and congestion, they must go around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal and then to Jeddah, adding 9,000 km and several weeks to the journey.

In Bangladesh, Brac, the world's largest development NGO, said its staff are spending five hours per week queuing for fuel rations, reducing the time they can work in refugee communities.

Even if a ceasefire holds, Savage warned of consequences for months to come. "We haven't even seen the full extent of the damage that has been done."

In Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia, where planting season has begun, shortages of fertilizer and fuel will severely affect farmers' ability to grow crops, worsening food insecurity, said Nick Jones-Bannister of Mercy Corps. Up to 45% of the world's seeds and fertilizers depend on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the UN. "That will have a knock-on effect on civil conflict and migration," Jones-Bannister said.