Falling oil prices fail to ease pain at Africa’s fuel pumps as hunger worsens
Internally displaced Somali women carry their children as they queue for supplies at a camp in the outskirts of Mogadishu on April 28, 2026. Shipping disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis have caused shortages of therapeutic food in drought-hit Somalia, forcing clinics treating severely malnourished children to ration supplies and turn away patients.
Global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps has accused fuel-importing countries of failing to pass on falling global oil prices to consumers, warning that persistently high pump prices are worsening the cost of living across Africa.
In a new report, the charity said retail fuel prices in several import-dependent economies have not fallen in line with declines in global crude prices following the ongoing Middle East crisis.
