Global Shipping Cost Surge Severely Impacts Humanitarian Aid: 'Children's Lives Must Not Be Threatened' Says UNICEF Supply Chief

GENEVA/MOGADISHU, 2 June 2026 – Jean-Cédric Meeus, Chief of the Supply Division at UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), made the following statement at a regular UN press conference in Geneva regarding the impact of rising transport costs on children worldwide. Nearly 100 days have passed since military tensions escalated in the Middle East in February, and the effects are spreading far beyond the region. The disruption of the global humanitarian supply chain is affecting children worldwide, with major international transport routes experiencing continued congestion and transport costs rising at every stage. Rising transport costs mean less funding is available for life-saving supplies that children need. This pressure makes relief efforts even more difficult for organizations like UNICEF, pushing them into a situation where small issues can have major impacts due to a lack of slack. What began as a disruption in maritime transport could develop into a humanitarian crisis. For UNICEF, these ongoing delays and rising operational costs, combined with global funding shortages, are forcing difficult decisions about which children to prioritize for aid. The impact of transport and logistics costs alone is immense. The rerouting of maritime routes around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa is currently causing delays of 2 to 4 weeks in transit times. Air cargo capacity via the Middle East is strained, and port congestion is spreading across Africa and other regions. Behind this chain of disruptions lies a simple and harsh reality: for every additional dollar UNICEF spends on transport, one dollar less is available for supplies for children. The impact on the ground in recent months has already been severe. Air freight costs for vaccines from India to Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have increased by 50-70%. The cost of trucking Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) from manufacturers in Kenya to Somalia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has risen by 30%. Maritime shipping costs for education supplies from China to Yemen and Mozambique have seen a dramatic increase of 100-150%. For a polio mass vaccination campaign targeting 12 million children in Nigeria, the transport route for syringes had to be changed, incurring an additional cost of $200,000 and a 56% increase in transport costs. The cost of international transport to Mali increased by 36% in the first quarter. These cost increases force the UNICEF Mali office to make difficult choices: either reduce the quantity of RUTF ordered, meaning fewer children receive treatment, or absorb these unexpected transport costs, thereby reducing funds for other critical programs like health, education, water and sanitation (WASH), and child protection. The transport of nutrition supplies to Afghanistan has also been affected by successive route closures, forcing the use of a route via Georgia across the Caspian Sea, resulting in delivery delays of approximately two months. Significant delays are occurring at the ports of Beira, Conakry, Abidjan, Dar es Salaam, and Mombasa in Africa. Landlocked countries dependent on these transport routes continue to face cascading impacts. The Djibouti corridor, a major humanitarian lifeline for Ethiopia, is also under increasing pressure. Millions of children are bearing the brunt of these changes. Furthermore, the annual transport support capacity provided by logistics partners to UNICEF is nearly exhausted, an unprecedented situation. The accumulation of these disruptions could delay the supply of critical items by up to 4 to 6 months. For children in crisis zones, delays in the arrival of supplies like vaccines and therapeutic food can be a matter of life and death. Despite these challenges, UNICEF has not stopped the flow of essential supplies. It is securing alternative air, land, and sea routes, accelerating procurement, and diversifying sources of supply. It is strategically leveraging its global network, including logistics hubs in Copenhagen and Dubai, and over 300 prepositioned supply warehouses worldwide. UNICEF is also localizing manufacturing. It currently works with over 20 RUTF manufacturers worldwide, including in Ethiopia, Kenya, Haiti, and Egypt, reducing dependence on long-distance international transport. Furthermore, through procurement strategies and market-shaping initiatives, UNICEF is strengthening supply chain resilience and supply stability, contributing to price stability and mitigating the risks of shortages and price spikes. In collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) and other UN partners, UNICEF has secured commitments from major transporters to temporarily suspend surcharges for humanitarian cargo. This is expected to result in cost savings of an estimated $2 million across the entire UN system. However, it must be made clear that there are limits to what humanitarian agencies can achieve through their own efforts. When the supply chain stalls, it is children who pay the price first. Despite all these challenges, UNICEF and its partner organizations continue their relief efforts. We will not allow these difficulties to threaten the lives and well-being of children.