GENEVA: The Middle East war has forced the World Health Organization to suspend operations at its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency’s chief said Thursday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the impact of the conflict, sparked by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday, “goes beyond the immediately affected countries”.
“Operations at WHO’s logistics hub for global health emergencies in Dubai are currently on hold due to insecurity,” he told a press conference.
Last year, the Dubai logistics hub processed more than 500 emergency orders for 75 countries around the world, Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director, told reporters.
“Humanitarian health supply chains are now being jeopardised,” she warned.
Balkhy explained that “the hub’s operations are temporarily on hold due to insecurity, airspace closures and restrictions affecting access to the Strait of Hormuz”. The disruption, she said, was “preventing access to $18 million in humanitarian health supplies while another $8 million in shipments cannot reach the hub”. It was affecting more than 50 emergency supply requests from 25 countries, as well as some $6 million in medicines destined for the war-torn Gaza Strip.
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