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Yemen's hunger deepens, Sudan's hospitals are attacked, and one strait now moves almost nothing
Sudan's paramilitary RSF is deliberately attacking hospitals, a BBC investigation found. The findings were published on 22 October. In Yemen, newborn twins are fighting to survive as war fuels a hunger crisis that has grown four times deadlier in a year — 1,644 battle deaths in the trailing twelve months (UCDP, window ending Oct 2026). In Haiti, El Salvador's president is threatening Haitian gangs after they took soldiers from the UN-backed force hostage (BBC, 22 Oct 2026). A magnitude 7 earthquake killed at least 16 people in Tibet on 22 October (GDACS, 22 Oct 2026).
The war economies behind these crises are strangling the trade that brings people food. Only 3.7 ships a day passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the week of 12–18 October (IMF PortWatch), down 95 percent on a year earlier, choking Gulf food imports into East Africa. Aid agencies in Sudan, Yemen and Somalia should pre-position food now before routes harden. Donors should fund Yemen's emergency response, whose needs update was published on 22 October (OCHA), and press for open aid crossings into Gaza, where the UN children's agency reports children are still being killed.
Watch items
- Somalia — Forecast floods could displace over 800,000 people near rivers
- Burkina Faso — Famine risk grows for besieged families in blockaded Djibo
- DR Congo — Ebola epidemic nearing 10,000 cases amid eastern fighting