Stringent new international restrictions on movement introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic are threatening the lives of millions of people across the world already caught up in humanitarian emergencies.

UN agencies, aid groups and international experts have warned that the new restrictions, which have closed borders and ports, and severely limited the movement of key staff from Africa to South America and Asia, threaten a “dramatic” knock-on effect in countries suffering from conflict, extreme climate events and other crises.

Lola Castro, regional director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for southern Africa, said the interruption of food programmes for millions of people in the 12 countries that they cover, which have experienced three years of poor harvests because of drought, would have a “critical impact”.

“If anyone says they are not worried about this, they are not across the issue,” she said.

The warning came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, launched a $2bn (£1.7bn) coordinated global humanitarian response plan to fight Covid-19 in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, in a bid to protect millions of people and stop the virus from circling back around the globe.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reported that new coronavirus movement restrictions meant it was currently unable to reach thousands of people, including 300,000 in the Middle East.

“While governments are taking tough and much needed measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, millions of refugees and displaced people still depend on humanitarian assistance. Aid workers should fall into the same category as medical staff, food retailers or pharmacists.

“If supermarkets and pharmacies can remain operational during this crisis, then so should the delivery of humanitarian aid,” said Jan Egeland, the NRC’s secretary general.

Humanitarian organisations have already suspended relief programmes in some countries due to government restrictions, causing uncertainty and hardship for families.

“The risk of Covid-19 spreading to overcrowded displacement sites in Asia, Middle East and parts of Africa is extremely high, and will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe if we can’t protect those most at risk of infection,” said Egeland.

All of which has exacerbated fears that rising coronavirus cases in areas already in the grip of a humanitarian emergency could provoke a devastating “double tap” effect on the societies and people least able to deal with the pandemic, at a time when western donors are preoccupied with outbreaks in their own countries.

“It is a real issue,” said Vidya Diwakar, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London.

“There’s the direct impact of the disease but there’s also indirect impacts around border closures and logistics supply. We need to think about different ways of delivery, like mobile payments. But the catch is that many people in chronic poverty may not have access to mobiles.”

Andrew Shepherd, Diwakar’s colleague at the ODI, said: “The other aspect of this is that this is a rapid onset disaster. We really have very little time given the weak health systems and food issues in many of these countries.

“A quick response is very important. One urgent question is how we are going to prioritise what is going to be a huge volume of need. How to prioritise people living in pre-existing crises and focus most energy on them.

“We are talking about countries facing really difficult crises like natural disasters and climate extremes, and countries facing conflict. It is the reason the UN secretary general called this week for a global ceasefire.”

In South Africa, which has the largest number of reported cases on the continent and is the main humanitarian logistical centre for southern Africa, 35 out of 53 border posts have been closed or restricted even as agencies have sought exemptions for aid cargo shipments to continue.

Even before the corona virus outbreak began in China in December, Castro explained, roughly 45 million people in the region were defined as food insecure, with 8.1 million relying on the WFP.

“The lean season has been very, very hard for the past three years, with almost no rain and no harvest. We are also supporting some 4 million people every month in Zimbabwe. We are talking about millions who could be affected,” Castro added.

Elsewhere in Africa, new restrictions on entry for foreign staff into countries from South Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also impacting day to day operations.

It is not only Africa. Afghanistan has experienced a huge influx of citizens fleeing back from Iran, which is suffering one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. That has come as Pakistan has closed its joint border crossings, which are the main route for aid into Afghanistan. Although the country is still allowing exemptions for cargo, the situation is being watched with concern.

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In Bangladesh, which is host to an estimated 900,000 Rohingya refugees who fled from neighbouring Myanmar, the government has asked aid groups not to bring in new staff, and to limit travel between the camps and the nearby town of Cox’s Bazar, according to aid workers who spoke to the New Humanitarian website.

“If aid workers aren’t allowed to scale up urgent services because of lockdowns or stay-at-home orders, vital supplies will run out and displaced people will have their lifelines cut off,” said Egeland, reinforcing the point.

“We are asking governments to allow us to stay and deliver so that we can assist and protect the most vulnerable before it’s too late.”

Castro added that, with coronavirus cases mounting in southern Africa, her agency would have to adapt rapidly.

“For our teams in the field and our beneficiaries, we have to totally change our distribution models,” she said. “We have to reduce the concentration of people at distribution points, introduce handwashing facilities and make sure we have protective equipment.

“We then need to over come border closings, airlines closures, ports becoming affected. We are fighting a humongous number of factors.”

