According to the international charity Save The Children, if shipments are not quickly rerouted from the disruptions caused by the conflict in the Middle East, medical supplies to clinical activities with regard to the humanitarian problems in South Sudan could run out within two weeks
As the war between Iran and the U.S. continues, global supply chains remain shaken, resulting in airspace closure and the halt of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to some $600,000 worth of essential medicines stock in ports in Dubai, the charity said.
The charity is the sole supplier of medicines, vaccines, and nutritional treatment for about 90 government clinics in Sudan with roughly 400,000 patients, according to Willem Zuidema, global director of supply chain safety of Save The Children.
As a result of Sudan’s three-year conflict, the country faces one of the world’s largest humanitarian problems. Zuidema revealed that once buffer stocks are exhausted, patients would lack basic health care. “We have a couple of weeks to do this rerouting before the country’s stocks run out. The clock is ticking,” he added.
According to the regional director of the World Health Organization, Hanan Balkhy, “There’s a huge crunch in Sudan, of course, and there’s also a bigger crunch in medical commodities going into certain provinces,” highlighting the gravity of the situation.
Rising transport costs coupled with major donor cuts are affecting aid budget, Save The Children said, elaborating that with container freight rates rising about 25–30% as some shipping firms reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, they add weeks to delivery time.
Zuidema said “Demand will go up, but the means for us to respond – especially with the increasing fuel prices driving up cost – will go down. That’s extremely worrying.”
The medicines, which comprise antibiotics, antimalarials, pain and fever medication, and paediatric injectable drugs, commonly enter via Port Sudan and travel by road to areas including Darfur.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah