The US ends lifesaving food aid for millions. The World Food Program
calls it a 'death sentence'
[April 08, 2025]
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, SAMY MAGDY and DAVID BILLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has ended funding to U.N.
World Food Program emergency programs helping keep millions alive in
Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries, many of
them struggling with conflict, according to the organization and
officials who spoke to The Associated Press.
The World Food Program, the largest provider of food aid, appealed to
the U.S. to roll back the new cuts in a social media post Monday. The
unexpected round of contract cancellations has targeted some of the last
remaining humanitarian programs run by the U.S. Agency for International
Development, according to two U.S. officials, a United Nations official
and documents obtained by the AP.
“This could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing
extreme hunger and starvation,” WFP said on X.
The agency said it was in contact with the Trump administration “to urge
for continued support” for lifesaving programs and thanked the United
States and other donors for past contributions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials had
pledged to spare emergency food programs and other life-and-death aid
from deep cuts to U.S. foreign assistance. There was no immediate
comment Monday from the State Department.
The projects were being canceled “for the convenience of the U.S.
Government” at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Elon
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who was appointed to oversee
the elimination of USAID programs, according to termination notices sent
to partners and viewed by the AP.
Programs targeted by Trump administration
In Syria, a country battling poverty, hunger and insecurity after a
13-year civil war and an insurgency by the Islamic State group, some
$230 million in contracts with WFP and humanitarian groups was
terminated in recent days, according to a State Department document
detailing the cuts that was obtained by the AP.
The single biggest of the targeted Syria programs, at $111 million,
provided bread and other daily food to 1.5 million people, the document
says.
About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week. An
official with the United Nations in the Middle East said all U.S. aid to
WFP food programs across Yemen, another war-divided country that is
facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, has been
stopped, apparently including food that already had arrived in
distribution centers.
WFP also received termination letters for U.S.-funded programs in
Lebanon and Jordan, where Syrian refugees would be hit hardest, the U.N.
official said.
Some of the last remaining U.S. funding for key programs in Somalia,
Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe also was
affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and
shelter for people displaced by war, one of the U.S. officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to comment publicly.
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President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on Marine One,
Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Current and former USAID experts and partners said some $560 million
in humanitarian aid was cut to Afghanistan, including for emergency
food assistance, the treatment of severely malnourished babies,
lifesaving medical care, safe drinking water, and emergency mental
health treatment for survivors of sexual and physical violence.
Another of the notices, sent Friday, abruptly pulled U.S. funding
for a program with strong support in Congress that had sent young
Afghan women overseas for schooling because of Taliban prohibitions
on women’s education, said an administrator for that project, which
is run by Texas A&M University.
The young women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their
lives would be in danger, according to that administrator, who was
not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
Larger impact of cutting aid
The abrupt end of WFP programs threatens some of the world’s most
vulnerable populations, many of which depend on such food aid,
according to humanitarian groups. The U.S. and other donors long
have seen efforts to ease humanitarian crises as being in their
strategic interest by stemming mass migration, conflicts and
extremism, which struggles for resources can bring.
WFP chief Cindy McCain said in a posting on social media that the
cuts “undermine global stability.”
Rubio had notified Congress and courts last month that USAID
contract cuts were over, with about 1,000 programs spared worldwide
and more than 5,000 others eliminated. That added to the shock of
the new cuts.
The Trump administration has accused USAID of wastefulness and
advancing liberal causes.
Trump's freeze on all foreign assistance through USAID and the State
Department led to a brief shutdown of services at the al-Hol camp,
where tens of thousands of alleged Islamic State fighters and their
families are kept under guard.
That shutdown raised fears of an uprising or breakout at the camp.
U.S. officials quickly intervened to restore services.
The State Department document obtained by the AP identifies two
newly terminated contracts, run by Save the Children and the U.N.
Population Fund, which provided mental health services and other
care to women and children at al-Hol. It was not immediately clear
if any other services were affected at the camp.
The U.S. had been the major funder of the WFP, providing $4.5
billion of the $9.8 billion in donations to the food agency last
year.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Biller from Rome. AP Diplomatic Writer
Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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