CNN
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The State Department said Thursday that the life-saving wheat aboard a carrier ship sailing toward southern Yemen will not go to waste, as it responded to CNN’s reporting that the Trump administration’s recent cuts to humanitarian funding could result in the wheat rotting or being pillaged once it arrived at the port of Aden.
“We’re actively considering options for the wheat and have no intention to allow the food to go to waste,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. “The redirection of humanitarian cargo is not uncommon and has happened with U.S. commodities bound for Yemen before.”
The spokesperson also confirmed that the ship carrying wheat departed Oregon in early April and is scheduled to arrive in southern Yemen in mid-May, as CNN previously reported.
It is not clear whether the carrier might shift paths mid-journey and head to a new final destination, or if the wheat on the ship may be unloaded in southern Yemen before being sent to a different country in need.
The State Department also did not address what funding would be used to ensure that the wheat would ultimately go to people in need, given that the US Agency for International Development’s contracts with the United Nations’ World Food Programme, including for Yemen, remain canceled. Sources had previously told CNN that as a result, the WFP would not have the authority or funding to do anything with the wheat once it arrived in Yemen next month.
State Department officials had not been in touch with the WFP to discuss the fate of the carrier headed toward Yemen, sources close to the situation told CNN. The State Department declined to comment further on this story. The WFP did not respond to a request for comment.
While it is not common practice, ships carrying humanitarian aid can sometimes get redirected to a different destination, including, for example, in the case of a natural disaster or if circumstances at the carrier’s original destination make the offloading of the aid too challenging, a source familiar said. Redirecting such a ship would incur additional costs, according to another source, who noted it is unclear where that money would come from.
The WFP estimates that around half – 17 million people – of Yemen’s population is food insecure. The Yemeni people have been devastated by a yearslong civil war that started with Houthi rebels storming the country’s capital of Sanaa and dismantling the country’s internationally recognized government in 2014.
The drastic cuts to USAID and its funding over the past few months have wreaked havoc on the global humanitarian aid ecosystem, with scores of companies and organizations getting their contracts canceled or receiving delayed or partial payments.
Even the futures of groups that still have active USAID contracts remain deeply uncertain. While top Trump administration officials had initially said lifesaving humanitarian programs would not be on the chopping block, the decision earlier this month to terminate USAID funding for emergency food assistance stunned humanitarian workers.
Last week, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the administration’s decision to terminate Yemen awards was in part “based on concern that the funding was benefitting terrorist groups,” including the Houthis.
“These concerns with UN funding have been documented and discussed for years, which is why USAID paused all food assistance in northern Yemen through WFP, specifically to mitigate any interference by the Houthis,” Bruce said.
