In an exclusive interview with AFP in Paris on Monday, the head of a United Nations task force assembled to address an emerging global humanitarian catastrophe issued a stark, time-sensitive warning: without immediate action to reopen fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, tens of millions of vulnerable people across the globe could be pushed into acute hunger and starvation. Jorge Moreira da Silva, who serves as both executive director of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the leader of this crisis-response task force, emphasized that the international community has only a narrow window of just a few weeks to intervene and avert an unprecedented food security disaster. Delays in securing safe passage for critical agricultural inputs, he explained, will trigger a domino effect that pushes an additional 45 million people into conditions of hunger and life-threatening starvation, a crisis that would ripple through low-income and food-import dependent nations across multiple continents. The Strait of Hormuz, a strategic global shipping chokepoint that carries a significant share of the world’s fertilizer and related raw material shipments, has faced growing navigation disruptions in recent months, driving up input costs and leaving farmers in vulnerable regions unable to secure the supplies they need for upcoming planting cycles. Moreira da Silva’s warning comes amid escalating global concerns over persistent food insecurity, which has been compounded by ongoing shipping disruptions, rising commodity prices, and conflicting geopolitical priorities that have slowed targeted action to protect critical food supply chains.
World has weeks to avert ‘humanitarian crisis’ over Hormuz fertiliser blockade, says UN official
