Humanitarian agencies warn war in West Asia blocks food and medicine shipments

Change
The war in West Asia has effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz and forced aid agencies to reroute cargo and air consignments, leaving tens of thousands of metric tons of food and medicine stalled in transit and pushing shipping and insurance costs up by about 20%.
Humanitarian agencies warn war in West Asia blocks food and medicine shipments
Why it matters
Humanitarian logistics operations must now contend with substantially longer transit times and higher transport and insurance expenses, which reduce the volume of aid that can be moved within fixed budgets. Critical health and nutrition campaigns face delayed delivery windows as routes add days to weeks to normal schedules.
Implications
  • Humanitarian logistics teams at United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organisations must reroute planned shipments around closed sea and air hubs and budget for transit detours that add weeks to schedules, or consignments will remain delayed.
  • Vaccine distribution teams and cold-chain managers must adopt hybrid air‑land routings (for example, flying to Turkey and driving into Iran) and add about 10 days to delivery timetables, or vaccination campaigns will miss scheduled windows.

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Source

The Hindu

Topics

Conflicts Supply Chain & Logistics

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