Washington (AP) -The Trump administration has terminated some of the last remaining US funds for the UN World Program and other organizations that have to deal with conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and other destitute countries.
The World Food Program, the world’s largest provider of food aids, has achieved some of the biggest hits in the novel and unexpected contract round in the past few days, according to two US officials, an united nations and documents that have been received from the AP.
Many of the newly canceled contracts offer the type of Lebenshilfe that Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said. The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency from Elon Musk have dismantled the US Agency for International Development and reduced foreign support programs since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.
The projects were canceled “for reasons of the US government” at the instructions of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Doge, which the Trump government commissioned to monitor the elimination of USAID programs, according to announcements that were sent to USAID partners and viewed by AP.
In Syria, a country fought against poverty, hunger and uncertainty after a 13-year civil war and an uprising of the Islamic state group that around $ 230 million in contracts with WFP and humanitarian groups have been terminated in the past few days.
The largest of the targeted Syria programs with 111 million US dollars offered 1.5 million people bread and other daily food, the document says.
In the past week, about 60 letters that cancel the contracts. An official of the United Nations in the Middle East said that all US food programs across Yemen, another, war-prepared country that is exposed to one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, apparently also stopped food that has already occurred at sales centers.
WFP also received termination letters for US-financed programs in Lebanon and Jordan, in which Syrian refugees would be hit hardest, said the UN official.
Some of the last remaining funds for critical programs in Somalia, Afghanistan and the South African nation Zimbabwe were also affected, including those who offer food, water, medical care and protection for people for those displaced by the war, said one of the US officials.
The officials who confirmed the dismissals spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not justified to comment publicly.
Neither the United Nations nor the Foreign Ministry had an immediate public comment.
Another that was sent on Friday pulled us abruptly for a program with forceful support in the congress that had sent teenage Afghan women overseas for school.
The teenage women would now return to return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be in danger, according to this administrator, who was not entitled to speak publicly and spoke about the condition of anonymity.
Auxiliary officials just learned from many cuts on Monday and said they had difficulty understanding their scope.
Critics have concerned themselves about the possible destabilizing effects of cuts in countries that became unstable through the war and by violent extremist groups, including in Syria.
Trump’s freezing of all foreign support from the USA and the Foreign Ministry led to a brief closure of the services in the Al-Hol-Ware, where tens of thousands of alleged Islamic statesmen and their families are kept under the go.
This shutdown increased the fears of an uprising or outbreak in the warehouse, and US officials quickly intervened to restore the services.
The document received by the AP identifies two newly terminated contracts carried out by Save the Children and the UN population fund, which enabled women and children at al-Holz mental health services and other care. It was not immediately clear whether other services in the warehouse were affected.
The Trump administration had undertaken to save the most urgent life-saving programs because it lowered help and development programs by the Foreign Ministry and the USA.
The Republican administration has already canceled thousands of contracts by the USA, which accuses them of waste and promoting liberal causes.
The newly terminated contracts included around 900 surviving programs that Rubio informed the congress that he wanted to preserve, one of the US officials said.
The United States was the main promoter of the WFP and last year delivered 4.5 billion US dollars of the donations of 9.8 billion US dollars to the Food Agency.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Biller from Rome. AP -Diplomatic writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
