Daily Brief · free, every morning

A belt of active wars from Sudan to Iran is collapsing food supply chains across three continents

Sudan's civil war entered its fourth year with RSF forces besieging El Obeid and confirmed famine persisting in El Fasher and Kadugli, making it the world's largest displacement crisis with 33.7 million in need. Iran's war with the US and Israel re-escalated in July after the ceasefire collapsed — IRGC strikes on Hormuz shipping cut traffic to roughly 15 transits per day versus 110 pre-war, and Somali piracy is now surging as a ripple effect. Yemen's internal front shattered a four-year truce on July 3, Lebanon's Israel-Hezbollah war has killed over 4,000 since March, and Gaza's ceasefire has absorbed 1,092 post-truce deaths. Simultaneously, the Horn of Africa drought deepens across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea.

The convergence matters because these crises are not independent. Hormuz shipping disruption chokes Gulf food and fuel imports into the Horn, where 43 percent of Somalis are already acutely food insecure and Ethiopia's Amhara insurgency has displaced 1.55 million. Global food prices remain elevated, with the oils index at 195.7, hitting import-dependent war economies hardest. Currency collapse in Iran, Sudan, Yemen, and Cuba erases purchasing power — Sudan's currency has lost over 1,000 percent of value. Meanwhile, Mali's siege of Bamako and Burkina Faso's blockaded Djibo face the same famine-risk pattern as El Fasher: armed groups weaponizing starvation as sieges cut supply routes.

Watch items

• Sudan — RSF ground assault on El Obeid imminent
• Iran — Hormuz transit collapse choking Gulf food imports
• Somalia — Piracy resurgence threatening aid shipping lanes