US restores urgent food aid but not in Afghanistan and Yemen, where millions of people need it

The United States over the weekend sent notices terminating funding for U.N. World Food Program emergency programs 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 destabilize 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 programs, the U.S. would work with the U.N. 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 authorized 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 U.N. officials.

"The United States terminated a limited number of WFP programs based on specific country or program 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 U.S. 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 programs 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.

Remaining cuts could still be disastrous

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Rubio on Wednesday to restore funding for other critical programs as well.

"Despite continued assurances that life-saving programs would be protected during the Trump Administration's 'review' of foreign assistance, DOGE again spent the weekend cutting World Food Program assistance to feed people in crisis," the New Hampshire senator said in a statement to the AP.

It will "weaken America's standing around the world," she added.

An expert in international aid at Yale University questioned the Trump administration's rationale.

"I don't know how much they know about the system they are dismantling. I don't know how much they care," said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.

Raymond called the cuts "a potential extinction-level event" for two generations of gains in limiting the suffering of those caught in crises.

The U.S. had been the largest funder of the WFP, providing $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion in donations to the world's largest food aid provider last year. Previous administrations had viewed such aid as a way of alleviating conflict and combating poverty and extremism while curbing migration.

Afghanistan is scarred by decades of war

More than half of Afghanistan's population — some 23 million people — need humanitarian assistance. It's a crisis caused by decades of conflict — including the 20-year U.S. war with the Taliban — as well as entrenched poverty and climate shocks.

Last year, the United States provided 43% of all international humanitarian funding to Afghanistan.

Some $560 million in humanitarian aid has been cut, including for emergency food assistance, treatment of malnourished babies, medical care, safe drinking water and mental health treatment for survivors of sexual and physical violence, according to an assessment by current and former USAID officials and partner organizations. The figure has not been confirmed by the U.S. government.

A separate WFP assessment obtained by the AP showed that food assistance to 2 million people in Afghanistan would be terminated later this year. More than 650,000 malnourished children, mothers and pregnant women would would lose nutritional support.

The United Nations Population Fund said the U.S. had cut $100 million in support for maternal health services for millions of women, as well as gender-based violence services.

The International Rescue Committee, whose programs include nutritional assistance for tens of thousands of children under 5 and counseling services, said the cuts would affect nearly 1 million people.

"Kids who have seen great violence, who benefit from social work and psychosocial care that we provide, will be cut off," said Bob Kitchen, head of global emergencies for the aid group.

Some in Yemen have been at risk of famine

The poorest Arab country was plunged into civil war in 2014 when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized much of the North, including the capital, Sanaa. The U.S. supported a Saudi-led coalition that intervened the following year on behalf of the government. The conflict has been at a stalemate in recent years.

The war has led to widespread hunger, and experts warned as recently as 2024 that parts of Yemen were at risk of famine.

The U.S. cuts would end lifesaving food assistance to 2.4 million people and halt nutritional care for 100,000 children, according to the WFP assessment.

The U.S. is carrying out a campaign of airstrikes against the Houthis in retaliation for their attacks on international shipping linked to the war in the Gaza Strip.

The WFP had already suspended its programs in Houthi-ruled northern Yemen, where the rebels have detained dozens of U.N. staffers and people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy.

The latest cuts would affect southern Yemen, where the internationally recognized government opposed to the Houthis is based. The WFP assessment warned that halting aid there "carries significant political and security implications and risks deepening the economic crisis and exacerbating instability."

Last year, the WFP assisted 8.6 million people in Yemen, more than a quarter of its population, including more than 330,000 internally displaced people and 1.2 million with disabilities. Half were women and children.