Trump admin claims it hasn’t backed away from aid commitments despite canceling help for Afghanistan and Yemen

The United States has not “backed away from our commitments to providing lifesaving food aid,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday, despite the Trump administration’s recent cancelation of contracts to support such assistance in places like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Niger.

The United States has not “backed away from our commitments to providing lifesaving food aid,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday, despite the Trump administration’s recent cancelation of contracts to support such assistance in places like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Niger. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) last weekend canceled a number of contracts supporting lifesaving work and all of its remaining contracts for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and Yemen, where huge swaths of the population rely on foreign assistance to survive, a USAID official told CNN Monday. On Monday, the World Food Programme expressed strong concern about “recent notifications from the US administration indicating that funding for emergency food assistance in 14 countries has been terminated.” “If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” the UN organization warned. “We are in contact with the US administration to seek clarification and to urge for continued support for these life-saving programmes.” Bruce said Tuesday that “85% of previously existing USAID programs with the World Food Programme worldwide remain active and ongoing,” but noted that “a limited number” were terminated. Those included programs in Afghanistan and Yemen, she confirmed, saying they were canceled “through an executive order that was issued based on concern that the funding was benefiting terrorist groups, including the Houthis and the Taliban.”