UN food program closes its southern Africa office in the wake of Trump administration aid cuts

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The United Nations’ World Food Program is closing its southern Africa office in the wake of the Trump administration’s aid cuts, a spokesperson said Monday.

Tomson Phiri said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that the U.N. food agency had launched a multiyear plan to streamline its structure in 2023 but as “the donor funding outlook becomes more constrained, we have been compelled to accelerate these efforts.”

Phiri said the WFP would consolidate its southern and East Africa operations into one regional office in Nairobi, Kenya. The southern Africa office in Johannesburg will close.

Phiri said food programs would continue.

“Our commitment to serving vulnerable communities is as strong as ever, and WFP remains committed to ensuring our operations are as effective and efficient as possible in meeting the needs of those facing hunger,” he wrote.

The WFP didn’t say how much funding it had lost from USAID, but it received $4.4 billion in assistance from the United States last year, around half its total annual budget and more than four times the amount given by the second biggest donor, Germany.

The Trump administration announced last week it was terminating 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts because they didn’t advance America’s national interests, stopping $60 billion in spending on humanitarian projects across the world.

The move comes after southern Africa was hit by its worst drought in decades last year, destroying crops and putting 27 million people in danger of hunger, according to the WFP. The WFP made a call for $147 million in donations to help some of those in need even before President Donald Trump started cutting U.S. foreign aid.

The WFP provides food assistance to more than 150 million people in 120 countries worldwide, it says. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 and its last six leaders since 1992 have all been Americans, including current executive director Cindy McCain, the widow of former U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Few U.N. agencies have been specific about the impact of the U.S. aid cuts.

The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration reportedly has cut 3,000 jobs linked to resettlement in the United States, and family planning agency UNFPA has estimated that a number of its operations will be affected.

Many U.N. aid agencies have said they are still assessing the impact and remain unclear about whether some programs or projects will benefit from waivers that could allow U.S. donations to continue to flow.

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Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.