State Department says life-saving wheat headed for Yemen won’t go to waste and US may redirect ship after CNN reporting

The State Department said Thursday that the life-saving wheat aboard a carrier ship sailing toward southern Yemen will not go to waste, as it responded to CNN’s reporting that the Trump administration’s recent cuts to humanitarian funding could result in the wheat rotting or being pillaged once it arrived at the port of Aden.

The State Department said Thursday that the life-saving wheat aboard a carrier ship sailing toward southern Yemen will not go to waste, as it responded to CNN’s reporting that the Trump administration’s recent cuts to humanitarian funding could result in the wheat rotting or being pillaged once it arrived at the port of Aden. “We’re actively considering options for the wheat and have no intention to allow the food to go to waste,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. “The redirection of humanitarian cargo is not uncommon and has happened with U.S. commodities bound for Yemen before.” The spokesperson also confirmed that the ship carrying wheat departed Oregon in early April and is scheduled to arrive in southern Yemen in mid-May, as CNN previously reported. It is not clear whether the carrier might shift paths mid-journey and head to a new final destination, or if the wheat on the ship may be unloaded in southern Yemen before being sent to a different country in need. The State Department also did not address what funding would be used to ensure that the wheat would ultimately go to people in need, given that the US Agency for International Development’s contracts with the United Nations’ World Food Programme, including for Yemen, remain canceled. Sources had previously told CNN that as a result, the WFP would not have the authority or funding to do anything with the wheat once it arrived in Yemen next month. State Department officials had not been in touch with the WFP to discuss the fate of the carrier headed toward Yemen, sources close to the situation told CNN. The State Department declined to comment further on this story. The WFP did not respond to a request for comment.