Reuters published on 14 August 2026 an article titled "650,000 Refugees in South Sudan Could Lose Food Aid Within Weeks Due to Funding Squeeze, Say UN Agencies" by Olivia Le Poidevin.
Staff with the World Food Program and UN High Commission for Refugees report that 650,000 refugees in South Sudan, most of them from conflict in neighboring Sudan, may no longer receive food assistance due to a shortage of international funding.
Foreign Affairs published on 16 January 2026 an article titled "Less Foreign Aid, More Climate Risk: The Massive Costs of Gutting USAID" by Alice Hill and Lindsey Doyle.
Modest investment in USAID-financed climate-resilience projects has been gutted by the Trump administration. Slashing funding and decimating the institutions that deliver it is neither fiscal prudence nor putting America first.
The Associated Press published on 7 January 2026 an article titled "US Suspends Assistance to Somalia's Federal Government, Alleging It Seized Food Aid" by Matthew Lee.
The US State Department has suspended all assistance to Somalia's federal government over allegations that Somali officials destroyed an American-funded warehouse belonging to the World Food Program and seized 76 metric tons of food aid intended for the civilian population.
Aljazeera published on 31 December 2025 an article titled "War in Sudan: Humanitarian Collapse, Fighting, Deadlock, December 2025" by Mohammad Mansour.
The humanitarian situation in Sudan deteriorated to a new low following a collapse of international funding, although the European Union launched an air bridge to deliver supplies to Darfur. Kordofan province became the new epicenter for fighting as both the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces relied increasingly on the use of drones. All attempts to end the conflict through negotiation appeared to be stalled.
UMVA posted on 19 December 2025 an article titled "Rubio Explodes: Disaster Response Saved Despite Biden's Chaos!"
Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the State Department's ability to manage disaster relief programs following the dismantlement of USAID by citing its recent response to the category 5 hurricane in Jamaica. The State Department sent disaster assistance response and urban search and rescue teams and provided $1 million in assistance.
Comment: The US response to the hurricane in Jamaica has been relatively modest. In the meantime, the United States has pulled back sharply from humanitarian disasters in places like Sudan. The jury is still out as to the capacity of the State Department to replace the disaster response record of USAID but count me a skeptic.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published on 10 December 2025 a report titled "The Painful, Seismic Shift in Humanitarian Aid -- And What's Next" by Allison Lombardo and Stewart Patrick.
For decades the United States was by far the world's largest humanitarian aid donor. In 2024, it provided 38 percent of total emergency assistance tracked by the United Nations. The dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development by the Trump administration changed all of this.
The Trump administration's proposed FY2026 budget cuts funding for humanitarian aid by 70 percent. It cut funding for the World Food Program by more than 90 percent and made huge cuts in funding for UNICEF and the International Organization for migration.
Africa is the biggest loser in these US cutbacks. The continent accounts for 10 of the 13 hardest hit countries.
The New York Times published on 22 June 2025 an article titled "What Remains of U.S.A.I.D.?" by Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Malika Khurana, and Christine Zhang.
The USAID projects that survived DOGE dismantlement of the agency are the result of pleas and negotiations of a few politically important people, many of whom had little experience in foreign aid. Some 891 programs constituting 14 percent of the previous total and $69 billion survived and will be administered by the State Department. DOGE cancelled USAID projects worth $76 billion over several years.
There was no comprehensive review of previous programs. The focus going forward is addressing acute disease, hunger, and other humanitarian emergencies. The State Department does not have the staff, resources, or expertise to oversee the programs that survived DOGE cuts.
The East African published on 8 May 2025 an article titled "Drone Attacks Spread to Sudan's 'Safe Havens' as War Escalates" by Mawahib Abdallatif.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has launched drone attacks on parts of Sudan under Sudan Armed Forces control where they have not occurred in the past two years. These attacks are adding to the humanitarian crisis in the country.
France 24 posted on 23 April 2025 an 11-minute interview titled "Trump's Foreign Aid Cuts Are a 'Slow-running Disaster', Former USAID Administrator Says" with J. Brian Atwood.
Atwood discusses the downsides of dismantling the US Agency for International Development. As more people suffer in the Global South due to cuts in foreign aid by the United States and other donors, there will be additional pressure to migrate to developed countries. There will be increased challenges in combatting global health threats such as Ebola, putting everyone at risk. While countries like China will take propaganda advantage of the slashing of US foreign aid, they are not in a position to fill the gap.
The International Crisis Group published on 28 April 2025 a paper titled "The Stakes of Stripping Climate from UN Peacekeeping in South Sudan" by Nazanine Moshiri.
The UN Security Council will soon vote on the future of the peacekeeping mission in conflict-impacted South Sudan. The paper discusses what is at stake and why climate and peace should remain part of the mission's work.
The New York Times published on 19 April 2025 an article and photo spread titled "Trump's Aid Cuts Hit the Hungry in a City of Shellfire and Starvation" by Declan Walsh and Ivor Prickett.
Within days of the dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration, over 300 soup kitchens run by Emergency Response Rooms, a network of democracy activists turned volunteer aid workers, were forced to close. Aid groups on the ground in Sudan say the flow of American money stopped two months ago and USAID officials who helped make the payments have been fired.
The Associated Press published on 10 April 2025 an article titled "Sudan Faces the World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis as Second Anniversary of War Nears, UN Says" by Edith M. Lederer.
The World Food Program's emergency coordinator for Sudan reports that half of Sudan's 25 million people face extreme hunger after two years of war, making it the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
Reuters published on 8 April 2025 an article titled "Trump Administration Moves to Restore Some Terminated Foreign Aid Programs, Sources Say" by Jonathan Landay, Daphne Psaledakis, and Humeyra Pamuk.
The Trump administration reinstated at least 6 recently cancelled US foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance following pressure from inside the administration and from Congress. The reversal allows food aid programs to continue in Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Ecuador.
The Financial Times published on 23 February 2025 an article titled "Donald Trump's Assault on Aid Sparks Chaos in East Africa's Relief Hub" by William Wallis.
The economy of Kenya, a regional hub for American assistance to Africa, has been hit hard by the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID. In 2023, Kenya received $830 million in US assistance, almost half of it in the healthcare sector.
Foreign Policy published on 7 February 2025 an article titled "Sudan's New Model for Aid Distribution" by Kelsey Norman and Salah Ben Hammou, both at Rice University.
Local communities in Sudan have created emergency response rooms to distribute food and critical supplies in areas where international agencies and non-governmental organizations are not able to operate. While this helps solve the delivery problem at the local level, Sudan's humanitarian crisis remains dependent on international aid, which will be negatively impacted by the dismantling of USAID.
Reuters published on 18 October 2024 an investigative report titled "UN Food Agency Failed to Act as U.S. Aid Was Looted in Ethiopia" by Giulia Paravicini, Steve Stecklow, and Tiksa Negeri.
Thousands of tons of food aid provided by USAID to the World Food Program (WFP) were diverted from hungry Ethiopian civilians in Tigray Region in 2023 to the Ethiopian military, Eritrean soldiers, and Tigrayan forces. The authors allege that WFP staff chose to ignore the illegal diversions. As a result, USAID temporarily shut down the assistance program.
The Council on Foreign Relations posted on 19 September 2024 a photo essay titled "Crisis in Sudan, War, Famine, and a Failing Global Response" by Mariel Ferragamo and Sabine Baumgartner.
Making widespread use of photos and maps, the article describes a failing aid response and unsuccessful peace process in efforts to end the tragedy in Sudan.
National Public Radio published on 21 August 2024 an article titled "Yes There Is Famine in Sudan. So Why Isn't 'Famine' Being Declared?" by Fatma Tanis.
The article explains why it is so difficult to declare officially that a famine has occurred.
The New York Times published on 26 July 2024 an article titled "As Starvation Spreads in Sudan, Military Blocks Aid Trucks at Border" by Declan Walsh and Ivor Prickett.
In an effort to prevent arms from reaching its rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from across the Chad border, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) has instructed the United Nations not to send humanitarian relief trucks through check points controlled by the RSF. They must make a 200-mile detour to a border crossing controlled by a local militia allied with the SAF, significantly complicating the distribution of humanitarian aid.
The International Crisis Group posted on 26 June a 32-minute podcast titled "Sudan Is Starving, Now What?" with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation, interviewed by Alan Boswell.
Alex de Waal, who has followed Sudan for decades, warned not to get caught up in the official definition of famine as the problem may be the absence of good data to make such a declaration. In any event, there is a starvation crisis in Sudan. The most affected region is Darfur, but the entire country is facing a food crisis.
The Sudan Armed Forces, serving as the recognized government of Sudan, is blocking a famine declaration and even using it as a weapon. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, for its part, is nothing more than a "pillage machine." The result is a country that has become a "complex catastrophe" with numerous causes.
