USAID restores WFP contract
to Lebanon and other countries

Reversal comes after warning of possible deadly outcome

Lebanon is one of the countries affected by yesterday’s course reversal of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). It restored several of the World Food Programme (WFP)’s lifesaving humanitarian aid contracts after canceling them over the weekend. Other countries affected include Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Ecuador and Somalia.

The reversal comes after WFP, a UN agency, warned that the cuts could “amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation.” It said that it had received notice from the Trump administration “indicating that funding for emergency food assistance in 14 countries has been terminated.”

Jeremy Lewin, a top USAID official affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency, requested in an email Tuesday that the terminations be rescinded. “Sorry for all the back and forth on awards,” he wrote in the email. “There are a lot of stakeholders and we need to do better about balancing these competing interests – that’s my fault and I take responsibility.”

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce at a State Department briefing said: “There were a few programs that were cut in other countries that were not meant to be cut, that have been rolled back and put into place,” she said without providing details on the restored programs. The US has not “backed away from our commitments to providing lifesaving food aid,” she said.

Bruce said Tuesday that “85 percent of previously existing USAID programs with the WFP worldwide remain active and ongoing,” but said that “a limited number” was terminated.