With the higher cost, WFP is faced with an extremely horrifying issue: being able to buy less food or provide less cash to beneficiaries due to the extreme spike in costs.
UN
The Middle East war could cause the worst disruption to lifesaving humanitarian work since COVID, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on 17 March 2026, as the UN chief again demanded an end to the widening conflict.
He further added that all security council resolutions regarding the end of Middle East conflicts must be implemented, including resolution 2817, which demanded an end to Iran's attacks on neighboring states. In its statement, the United Nations (UN) further noted that the consequences of the unrest in the Middle East are falling on people who do not have the margins to cope.
The Deputy Executive Director of WFP, Carl Skau told reporters in Geneva that the World Food Programme (WFP) supply chains may really be on the brink of the most severe disruption since COVID and the Ukraine war back in 2022, and that releif operations are suffering from longer shipping times and an increase in costs as the escalating violence continues into its third week sparked by Israeli and US strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks by Tehran and allied groups.
According to WFP, the programme's shipping costs are up 18 percent so far, with thousands of trucks on the road every day running on much more expensive fuel, due to the continued increase in oil prices across the globe. With the higher cost, WFP is faced with an extremely horrifying issue: being able to buy less food or provide less cash to beneficiaries due to the extreme spike in costs.
With the conditions worsening, the agency noted that it has been forced to cut food rations for people in famine coniditions in Sudan, and has only been able to support one in four acutely malnourished children in Afghanistan.
Noting these facts, Mr. Skau noted that if the Middle East conflict continues through June, an additional 45 million people could be pushed into acute hunger by price rises. This would take the global hunger level to an all-time record, showcasing the terrible prospects of this war.
When it comes to Lebanon, WFP noted that humanitarian effects of air traffic disruption continue to be felt acutely in the country, one of he epicentres of the conflict.
In 2024 [during the previous Israel-Lebanon conflict], we were receiving an incredible amount of assistance from the Gulf states, from the Saudis, from Qatar, from the UAE, from Oman, from Bahrain…We were getting a lot from Kuwait, and none of that is happening. The air bridge is no longer there.
With the continued strikes, the UN noted that displacement and humanitarian needs across Lebanon have surged, with Israeli airstrikes and displacement orders covering ever larger portions of the small nation's territory. According to Mr. Riza, about 70 percent of the displaced are not in shelters, further creating challanges for humanitarians trying to reach them.
