The World Food Programme, the UN’s primary humanitarian food assistance agency, is cutting operations in several crisis areas after a sharp reduction in US support that had accounted for nearly half of its funding in 2024.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all US foreign assistance. The Trump administration has also drastically scaled back US foreign aid by dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was terminated by the DOGE operation of multibillionaire Elon Musk.
In April 2025, the administration ended WFP funding for food programmes in 14 of the world’s most impoverished nations. The loss of funding is constraining an agency that reached more than 100 million people facing acute hunger last year, as over 266 million people face acute hunger this year.
The pressure is especially acute in Sudan, described as the world’s largest hunger crisis. Almost 20 million people face hunger there, yet the WFP’s funding for Sudan has fallen from $645 million last year to $206 million almost three-quarters into this year.
Budget reductions have led the agency to concentrate on the 5 million people it considers most in need. It has recently scaled up its work to reach 4 million people, leaving a large share of those facing hunger beyond its current operations. The gap required to maintain the WFP’s present work in Sudan is just short of $300 million.
The Sudan emergency is also placing strain on neighbouring Chad. More than half a million Sudanese refugees have fled there, contributing to a total refugee population of more than 1 million and making Chad one of Africa’s main refugee hot spots.
The WFP says food aid for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad will be suspended next month unless further money is received. Nearly half of Sudanese refugee children under five-years-old are suffering from severe anemia. The agency is seeking $242 million to maintain support in Chad for the next six months.
Funding restrictions are also affecting the WFP’s work in the West Bank and Gaza. The agency is being forced to halve its West Bank operation because of severe funding constraints. Its West Bank and Gaza operations in 2026 are projected at $142,300,000, compared with $870,300,000 in 2025.
The agency warned that funding cuts “could amount to a death sentence for millions of people”. Its concern extends beyond the immediate reduction in food assistance. The WFP says funding shortfalls mean “less monitoring and surveillance for early warning of looming problems”.
That reduction in early warning capacity comes as food insecurity is being compounded by conflict, climate risks and economic pressures. The brief identifies disruption to global grain supplies linked to Ukraine and the Strait of Hormuz, while fuel costs and rising interest rates are adding to the strain on food systems and humanitarian delivery.
The full extent to which other donors might offset the US reductions remains unclear. What is already evident in Sudan, Chad and the West Bank and Gaza is that the WFP is having to direct a smaller pool of funds towards needs that remain extensive.
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