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Three wars converge on the Strait of Hormuz as famine spreads across Africa
Iran's collapsed ceasefire with the US and Israel has choked the Strait of Hormuz to roughly 15 daily transits, down from 110 pre-war — severing a artery through which Gulf states import wheat and rice. Sudan's civil war entered its fourth year with RSF drone strikes on El Obeid's markets and water infrastructure, 33.7 million people in need, and IPC-confirmed famine in El Fasher and Kadugli. Gaza's October 2025 ceasefire is crumbling under near-daily Israeli strikes that have killed over 1,000 Palestinians since the truce, while aid deliveries remain at roughly a third of allocated volumes. Simultaneously, drought grips the Horn and East Africa from Eritrea to Tanzania, and the Sahel from Burkina Faso to Niger, where besieged towns face IPC Phase 5 famine risk.
The Hormuz disruption cascades directly into East African food security: Gulf states dependent on the strait for grain imports are now competing for limited supplies with countries already losing crops to drought. Global food prices remain elevated, with vegetable oils at near-record highs, compounding import costs for currency-collapsed economies — Iran's rial has lost over 4,000% of value, Sudan's pound over 1,000%, and Yemen's over 500%. Lebanon's Hezbollah-Israel front re-escalated with 4,000 killed since March and 1.2 million displaced, while Yemen's Hodeidah front shattered a four-year truce on July 3. The convergence of collapsed currencies, severed shipping lanes, and spreading famine creates a compounding crisis where each failure deepens the next.
Watch items
- Iran — Hormuz transit collapse choking Gulf grain imports
- Sudan — El Obeid ground assault feared as RSF siege tightens
- Lebanon — Hezbollah ceasefire collapsing as IDF expands beyond Yellow Line