\n The Middle East war “presents a serious risk to Africa”, the African Union and the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in a report seen by AFP Saturday. <\/p>\n
Issued on: 04\/04\/2026 – 20:15Modified: 04\/04\/2026 – 20:16<\/p>\n
2 min Reading time\n<\/p>\n
The conflict threatens to increase the cost of living and curtail growth on the continent, the report warned.<\/p>\n
The Middle East<\/a> accounts for 15.8 percent of Africa<\/a>‘s imports and 10.9 percent of its exports, the report noted.<\/p>\n “The conflict, which already has triggered a trade shock, could quickly turn into a cost-of-living crisis across Africa through higher fuel and food prices, rising shipping and insurance costs, exchange rate pressures, and tighter fiscal conditions,” it added.<\/p>\n The growth rate of most African countries continues to be slower than before the Covid pandemic, it noted.<\/p>\n “A loss in output growth of 0.2 percentage points on Africa’s GDP is projected for 2026 if it (the conflict) exceeds six months,” it said.<\/p>\n “The longer the conflict lasts and the more severe the disruption to shipping routes and energy and fertilizer supplies, the greater the risk of a significant growth slowdown across the continent.”<\/p>\n Reduced deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf<\/a> will impact fertiliser production, limiting its availability during the crucial planting period up to May, it added.<\/p>\n Spotlight on Africa: Africa faces security worries as Iran conflict spreads<\/a><\/p>\n Currencies hit <\/p>\n The report was compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP<\/a>) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA<\/a>).<\/p>\n According to recent data from the African Development Bank (AfDB<\/a>), the currencies of 29 African countries have already depreciated, increasing the cost of servicing external debt, making imports more expensive and reducing foreign exchange reserves,<\/p>\n Some countries could see some short-term gains, such as Nigeria<\/a> for its oil exports or Mozambique for its LNG.<\/p>\n The rerouting of ships around Cape of Good Hope could benefit ports in Mozambique, South Africa<\/a>, Namibia and Mauritius.<\/p>\n Kenya<\/a> is establishing itself as a logistics hub in East Africa, while Ethiopian Airlines, the leading carrier in Africa, is serving as an “emergency air bridge” between the continent, Asia<\/a>, and Europe<\/a>, the report noted.<\/p>\n But these gains are likely to be uneven and will not offset the consequences for inflation, budgets, and food security in Africa, they warned.<\/p>\n Above all, the current crisis could hit the costs of humanitarian aid and divert donor funds towards other priorities.<\/p>\n \u00a0(AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Middle East war “presents a serious risk to Africa”, the African Union and the African Development Bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[493,2596,2502,431,1976,5,2597,50,584],"class_list":{"0":"post-2573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-african-union","10":"tag-aid","11":"tag-economic-crisis","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-humanitarian","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}