Iran war could plunge 45 million into acute hunger, says UN agency

The number of people who experience acute hunger could leap to 364 million globally if the war on Iran continues until June, the World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

"This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record and it's a terrible, terrible prospect," the WFP’s deputy executive director Carl Skau said in Geneva.

Analysis by the UN agency has shown that since US and Israeli attacks on Iran began at the end of February, valuable aid routes to countries already suffering from chronic food insecurity have been blocked and shipments have been delayed.

If the war persists through to June, the number experiencing hunger worldwide could rise by 45 million.

The WFP had previously warned that increases in the price of fuel and scarcity of food due to the Middle East war had driven up costs for already vulnerable populations.

In the Middle East, the conflict is having immediate food security impacts, the UN agency said.

Countries in the region are particularly reliant on imports, and raw materials like fertiliser have rocketed in price.

In Lebanon, where around a million people have been displaced by Israel's attacks and the population had been grappling with high levels of food insecurity for years, the government introduced an emergency cash assistance programme and the WFP stepped up its food aid.

In Iran, economic stagnation, high food inflation and rapid currency depreciation were already driving food insecurity before the current conflict, leaving households with limited capacity to absorb further shocks.

In war-torn Gaza, while some border crossings have reopened since the ceasefire reached in October, food prices remain high, continuing to constrain access to affordable food, the WFP warned.

In Afghanistan, 17.4 million people are in urgent need of food assistance as the country receives 80 percent of its food supply from imports, much of it from Iran.