U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said "no one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. But in Myanmar, families tell The Associated Press their loved ones have died as a direct result of the aid cuts. In one case, the father of a 2-year-old boy says his son died in May of malnutrition after the family's food rations stopped arriving as a result of the aid cuts. In more than 60 interviews, the AP documented widespread suffering across Myanmar because of the U.S. decision. Children are screaming and crying for food. Health care services have been hobbled. The sick and the starving have wasted away, and people must forage for hours in the jungle each day to find food.
More than 300,000 refugees in the Kakuma camp in remote Kenya have had their food rations cut in half. And now the monthly cash transfers to buy proteins and vegetables to supplement them are gone. Funding for the U.N. World Food Program has dropped after the Trump administration paused support in March. It's part of the widespread dismantling of foreign aid by the United States, once the world's biggest donor. Some refugees are surviving on one meal a day. Some malnourished babies arrive too late at a local hospital and die within hours. Workers fear they will see more.
By SAMY MAGDY, RIAZAT BUTT and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has reversed cuts in emergency food aid to several nations but maintained them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world's poorest countries. It marks the latest round of abrupt cancellations of foreign aid contracts run through the U.S. Agency for International Development and equally sudden reversals. The U.S. initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries. The State Department confirmed Wednesday it reversed the cuts for emergency food programs in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador. The status of funding for six other countries is unclear. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says she wants to see funding restored.
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
Updated
The Trump administration has notified the World Food Program and other partners it has terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programs across the Middle East. A U.S. Agency for International Development official told The Associated Press on Monday about 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including to the World Food Program. A United Nations official says the World Food Program received termination letters for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The USAID official says U.S. funding for key programs in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe also is affected, including for programs providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war. The State Department hasn't commented.
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press
The U.S.-built pier to carry food to Gaza is facing one of its most serious challenges yet. The United Nations is deciding if it can keep safely and ethically deliver supplies from the U.S. sea route to starving Palestinians. The U.N. has paused its work with the pier since June 8, when an operation by Israeli security forces rescued four Israeli hostages and killed more than 270 Palestinians. The U.S. and Israel say no part of the pier was used in the raid but an Israeli helicopter used a spot near the pier. The U.N. and aid groups say they fear relief workers cooperating with the pier being seen as aligned with Israel and becoming targets.
