U.S. restores urgent food aid except in Afghanistan and Yemen, where millions need it

Trump administration reverses cuts in food aid to some nations, maintains in Afghanistan and Yemen, impacting millions.

The Trump administration has reversed sweeping cuts in emergency food aid to several nations but maintained them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries, officials said on Wednesday (April 9, 2025).

The United States had initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries, part of a dramatic reduction of foreign aid led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under billionaire Elon Musk.

Aid officials warned the cuts would deny food to millions of people and end health programmes for women and children.

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The administration informed the World Food Programme (WFP) of its reversal on Tuesday (April 8, 2025), according to two UN officials. Two officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed that Jeremy Lewin, the Musk associate overseeing the dismantling of USAID, ordered the reversal of some of his weekend contract terminations after AP reported them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.

The WFP said on Monday (April 7, 2025) it had been notified that USAID was cutting funding to the UN agency’s emergency food programme in 14 countries.

Funding has been restored for programmes in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Ecuador, according to the USAID officials and one of the UN officials. The status of funding for six other unidentified countries was not immediately clear.