US restores food aid but not in Afghanistan, Yemen where millions need it

CAIRO (AP):

US President Donald Trump’s administration has reversed new cutoffs in emergency food aid to several nations but maintained them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries, according to the State Department and officials who spoke to The Associated Press (AP).

It marks the latest round of abrupt cancellations of foreign aid contracts run through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and equally sudden reversals. The whipsawing moves come as the Republican administration and Trump adviser, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency dismantle USAID and dramatically reduce foreign assistance, asserting that the spending is wasteful and advances liberal causes.

The United States over the weekend sent notices terminating funding for UN World Food Program (WFP) emergency programmes in more than a dozen countries. Aid officials warned that the cuts could threaten the lives of millions of refugees and other vulnerable people, stressing the potential to further destabilise conflict-prone regions.

The State Department confirmed Wednesday that it had reversed those cuts in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador. It said it was keeping the cancellations for Afghanistan and Yemen but left the fate of food aid in six other unidentified nations unclear.

Even in Syria, Somalia and other crisis areas where it had reinstated support for lifesaving food programmes, the US would work with the UN to modify its funding “to better align with administration priorities,” the State Department said by email. It gave no details.

Two USAID officials said Jeremy Lewin, the DOGE associate overseeing the dismantling of the aid agency, ordered the reversal of some of his contract terminations on Tuesday, after the AP reported them. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TURNS BACK SOME CUTS

The USAID officials said Lewin sent a note internally expressing regret for the sudden contract terminations and abrupt reversals. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other Trump administration officials had pledged that the kind of lifesaving aid targeted in those surprise cuts would be spared.

A United Nations official said the decision to restore funding came after intense behind-the-scenes lobbying of members of Congress by senior UN officials.

“The United States terminated a limited number of WFP programmes based on specific country or programme level priorities – including WFP awards terminated in Yemen and Afghanistan based on credible and longstanding concerns that funding was benefitting terrorist groups including the Houthis and the Taliban,” the State Department said.

At a briefing Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce cited a US government watchdog’s 2024 finding that department contractors reported paying at least $10.9 million to Afghanistan’s Taliban government in taxes, utility payments and fees.

“Other programmes with WFP that were terminated were contrary to an America First agenda and didn’t make America stronger, safer, or more prosperous,” the State Department said Wednesday.