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Gulf shipping has almost stopped, and the food behind it is not moving

The Gulf waterway at the heart of world trade is nearly empty. It is the strait that carries the world's fuel and grain. Only 3.3 ships a day passed through the Strait of Hormuz last week (IMF PortWatch, week 19–25 Oct 2026), down from 102 a year earlier (IMF PortWatch, week 20–26 Oct 2025). The war between Iran, the US and Israel, begun 28 February 2026, is the cause. In Yemen, fresh fighting drove new displacement across the country through 25 October (OCHA). Sudan needs food for 33.7 million people this year (OCHA, 2026 HNRP) after the Rapid Support Forces took El Fasher and used starvation as a weapon.

For East Africa and the Horn, the blocked strait means grain and fuel that normally arrives through Gulf ports costs more and arrives late, while drought grips Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda (GDACS, 28 Oct 2026). Yemeni families already displaced by the August-to-October escalation face those prices with a collapsed currency. Cyclone Arnab put about 4 million people in cyclone-strength wind zones (GDACS, 28 Oct 2026). Aid agencies should move food and fuel stocks now into Gulf-dependent coastal countries, and donors should fund the Sudan response before the gap deepens.

Watch items

• Iran — A Hormuz blockade cutting food and fuel imports further
• Yemen — Hodeidah fighting cutting the last food corridor
• Sudan — Famine spreading from besieged cities into Darfur