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Fourteen active wars, one drought belt, and a Red Sea corridor hanging by a thread
The Israel-Hezbollah war is escalating on the ground: Israeli strikes killed 12 in a southern Lebanese village this week, on top of 4,000-plus Lebanese dead and 1.2 million displaced since March. Iran's war with the US and Israel is formally out of ceasefire, with Tehran threatening a 'faster, heavier' response and Hormuz traffic running at roughly 15 transits daily against 110 pre-war. Yemen's west-coast fighting has displaced 18,500 people in 72 hours, per fresh IOM tracking. Gaza's truce holds only on paper, with 1,092 killed since October and roughly a third of allocated aid trucks getting through.
The connective tissue is chokepoint economics. Hormuz disruption plus a Red Sea pause that could break — Houthis retain strike capability and some shipping stays clear — tightens grain and fuel routes that East Africa's famine belt can least afford. Sudan's siege warfare (El Obeid under RSF drone strikes, 33.7 million in need) and South Sudan's civil war feed the same corridor through Port Sudan. Meanwhile a drought belt spans Cuba through Central America into Europe and Ukraine itself, where war and dryness press the same harvest. Global food prices remain elevated, and collapsed currencies in Iran, Cuba, and Sudan price imports out of reach.
Watch items
- Iran — Hormuz blockade impact on Gulf food and fuel imports
- Yemen — West-coast offensive displacing civilians around Hodeidah
- Lebanon — Litani River raids breaking the April truce