“My strong appeal is for the negotiations to go on until that diplomatic solution is found, the ceasefire to be maintained, and in between, the Strait of Hormuz to be completely open…Any restart of the fighting would have terrible consequences,” António Guterres said.

Speaking in Nairobi ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, the UN chief insisted that the Middle East emergency was no “distant crisis”, as roughly 13 per cent of Africa’s imports of largely oil and fertilizers move through the key waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the wider world.

“It is absolutely essential and we have appealed to the two parties to open the Strait of Hormuz completely, without restrictions… [it] is a must from the point of view of the interests of the international community as a whole,” he told journalists in the Kenyan capital.

“That is the only way to bring energy prices and fertiliser prices back to the levels that we had before the war.”

Planting pressure

Kenya is in a less vulnerable position because most of its planting season is over, but many other African nations are still waiting to receive fertilizers and other agricultural inputs produced in the Gulf, Mr. Guterres cautioned.

Today, the price of urea – which contains concentrated nitrogen and is one of the world’s most widely used fertilizers – has risen by more than 35 per cent in a month, at the height of the planting season.

“Without fertilizers, you can imagine that we risk to have a serious food security problem next year,” he explained.

The Secretary-General’s comments came as he unveiled new UN offices and attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new conference facility at the UN Office at Nairobi.