The United States and other countries are cutting humanitarian relief. Our reporter went to Somalia to see the impact.

When the Trump administration shuttered U.S.A.I.D., it was the beginning of the collapse of the international relief system. Other rich countries quietly cut their own aid budgets. One official told my colleague Peter Goodman that we’re now entering “the post-aid era.”

It was only a matter of time before the world felt the effects during a major crisis. We’re now seeing two. An Ebola outbreak in central Africa may have been compounded by aid cuts that have forced clinics to close. The war in Iran has led to soaring costs for food, fuel and fertilizer. The people hurt are the most vulnerable, who no longer have a safety net.

Peter recently traveled to Somalia to see the impact up close. Today he writes about why the consequences of dismantling humanitarian aid are likely to be felt far beyond that country’s borders.

In more than three decades of journalism, I have seen my share of tragedies, from the Indian Ocean tsunami to wars in Iraq and Cambodia. But what I saw and heard recently in Somalia shocked me.

Somalia is heavily dependent on imports for food, fertilizer and fuel. With shipping effectively halted in the Strait of Hormuz, prices for those critical goods have roughly doubled. In scores of poor and unstable countries, hunger is increasing as the cost of food rises.

Last year, overall humanitarian funding dropped to $28 billion. The U.S. contributed $4 billion. Cuts are continuing.

In Somalia, the impacts of the Iran war are exacerbating a situation that was already dire. The cost of trucking water to the worst drought-hit areas has soared along with the price of fuel. Aid organizations like UNICEF have cut back on trips.

As the price of fertilizer soars, farmers are passing on those extra costs to consumers, raising the price of food. Schools that serve the only meal of the day to students in camps for those displaced by drought and conflict are reducing their portions.

As marine shipping has been diverted from the Strait of Hormuz, traffic jams have emerged at a key port in Oman, a hub for cargo that is transferred onto smaller vessels bound for destinations across East Africa. That is delaying the arrival of what food aid remains.

Aid is certainly about helping people in need. But it has always been an instrument of trade and security policy, too.

No doctorate in history is required to deduce that people generally do not sit calmly and starve in the face of catastrophe. They move where they have a better chance to survive. Many experts anticipate that the drastic reduction of international aid, along with the rising prices for food and fuel, will be catalysts for a fresh wave of migration, potentially stoking new social and political tensions on multiple shores.

Full copy of the article.

See also:

• Reporter details catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfolding amid aid cuts (CNN)