The Trump administration has reversed sweeping cuts in emergency food aid to a number of nations however maintained them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged international locations, officers mentioned on Wednesday (April 9, 2025).
The United States had initially minimize funding for initiatives in greater than a dozen international locations, a part of a dramatic discount of international aid led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) beneath billionaire Elon Musk.
Aid officers warned the cuts would deny food to millions of individuals and finish well being programmes for ladies and youngsters.
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The administration knowledgeable the World Food Programme (WFP) of its reversal on Tuesday (April 8, 2025), in accordance with two UN officers. Two officers with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed that Jeremy Lewin, the Musk affiliate overseeing the dismantling of USAID, ordered the reversal of a few of his weekend contract terminations after AP reported them. The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t authorised to temporary media.
The WFP mentioned on Monday (April 7, 2025) it had been notified that USAID was slicing funding to the UN company’s emergency food programme in 14 international locations.
Funding has been restored for programmes in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Ecuador, in accordance with the USAID officers and one of many UN officers. The standing of funding for six different unidentified international locations was not instantly clear.
The USAID officers mentioned Mr. Lewin despatched a observe internally expressing remorse at what he described as a miscommunication.
One of the UN officers mentioned the choice to revive funding got here after intense behind-the-scenes lobbying of members of Congress by senior UN officers.
U.S. officers didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce acknowledged on Tuesday (April 8, 2025) that a few of the programmes had been minimize by mistake and mentioned funding had been restored, with out offering particulars.
“I do not know how much they know about the system they are dismantling. I do not know how much they care,” mentioned Nathaniel Raymond, govt director of the Humanitarian Research Lab on the Yale School of Public Health.
“The damage they have already done is a potential extinction-level event for two generations of transformational improvements in how we prevent people from dying from a lack of food,” Mr. Raymond added.
Disastrous cuts
The cuts might show disastrous for millions in Afghanistan and Yemen, reeling from a long time of struggle and U.S.-led campaigns in opposition to militants.
The U.S. had been the biggest funder of the WFP, offering $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion in donations to the world’s largest food aid supplier final yr. Previous administrations had seen such aid as a method of assuaging battle and combating poverty and extremism whereas curbing migration.
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The Trump administration has accused USAID of advancing liberal causes, and has criticised international aid extra broadly as a waste of assets.
More than half of Afghanistan’s inhabitants — some 23 million individuals — need humanitarian help.
It is a disaster brought on by a long time of battle — together with the 20-year U.S. struggle with the Taliban — in addition to entrenched poverty and local weather shocks.
Last yr, the U.S. offered 43% of all worldwide humanitarian funding to Afghanistan.
A WFP evaluation confirmed that food help to 2 million individuals in Afghanistan could be terminated later this yr. More than 6,50,000 malnourished youngsters, moms and pregnant ladies would would lose dietary assist.
The newest cuts would have an effect on southern Yemen, where the internationally recognised authorities against the Houthis relies. The WFP evaluation warned that halting aid there “carries significant political and security implications and risks deepening the economic crisis and exacerbating instability.”
Published – April 10, 2025 01:17 pm IST
