US reverses some UN food aid cuts, says cancellations were ‘mistakes’

The United States yesterday announced that it has reversed some funding cuts to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), acknowledging that certain emergency aid projects were mistakenly cancelled.

“There were a few programmes that were cut in other countries that were not meant to be cut, that have been rolled back and put into place,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said during a press briefing.

Bruce emphasised that 85 per cent of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes with the WFP remain active, pushing back against claims that the US had fully defunded the agency. “So it is inaccurate, as some have intimated, that USAID has defunded the World Food Programme – that is not true,” she said.

According to Bruce, most of the cancelled aid contracts were in Yemen and Afghanistan, and were issued under an executive order that cited concerns about the funds potentially benefiting terrorist groups. However, she did not elaborate on which specific programmes were mistakenly cut or how the errors occurred, aside from those in Yemen and Afghanistan.

The clarification comes after widespread concern from humanitarian organisations and international partners, particularly following an earlier decision by US President Donald Trump to freeze foreign aid on 20 January. Trump described much of the aid as “wasteful”, sparking legal and diplomatic backlash.

The WFP issued a strong statement expressing “deep concern” after being notified that US funding for emergency food assistance in 14 countries had been terminated.

“If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” the agency warned.

Bruce, however, said the US government’s “commitment to foreign aid remains.”

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