UN Says It's Forced to Cut Food Aid to Millions Globally because of a Funding Crisis

FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Program (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Program (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
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UN Says It's Forced to Cut Food Aid to Millions Globally because of a Funding Crisis

FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Program (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Program (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

The United Nations has been forced to cut food, cash payments and assistance to millions of people in many countries because of “a crippling funding crisis” that has seen its donations plummet by about half as acute hunger is hitting record levels, a top official said Friday.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told a news conference that at least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already seen cuts or plan to cut assistance soon — including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa, The Associated Press said.
He said WFP’s operating requirement is $20 billion to deliver aid to everyone in need, but it was aiming for between $10 billion and $14 billion, which was what the agency had received in the past few years.
“We’re still aiming at that, but we have only so far this year gotten to about half of that, around $5 billion,” Skau said.
He said humanitarian needs were “going through the roof” in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine and its global implications. “Those needs continue to grow, those drivers are still there," he said, "but the funding is drying up. So we’re looking at 2024 (being) even more dire.”
“The largest food and nutrition crisis in history today persists,” Skau said. “This year, 345 million people continue to be acutely food insecure while hundreds of millions of people are at risk of worsening hunger.”
Skau said conflict and insecurity remain the primary drivers of acute hunger around the world, along with climate change, unrelenting disasters, persistent food price inflation and mounting debt stress — all during a slowdown in the global economy.
WFP is looking to diversify its funding base, but he also urged the agency’s traditional donors to “step up and support us through this very difficult time.”
Asked why funding was drying up, Skau said to ask the donors.
“But it’s clear that aid budgets, humanitarian budgets, both in Europe and the United States, (are) not where they were in 2021-2022,” he said.
Skau said that in March, WFP was forced to cut rations from 75% to 50% for communities in Afghanistan facing emergency levels of hunger, and in May it was forced to cut food for 8 million people — 66% of the people it was assisting. Now, it is helping just 5 million people, he said. In Syria, 5.5 million people who relied on WFP for food were already on 50% rations, Skau said, and in July the agency cut all rations to 2.5 million of them. In the Palestinian territories, WFP cut its cash assistance by 20% in May and in June. It cut its caseload by 60%, or 200,000 people. And in Yemen, he said, a huge funding gap will force WFP to cut aid to 7 million people as early as August.
In West Africa, where acute hunger is on the rise, Skau said, most countries are facing extensive ration cuts, particularly WFP’s seven largest crisis operations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.
He said cutting aid to people who are only at the hunger level of crisis to help save those literally starving or in the category of catastrophic hunger means that those dropped will rapidly fall into the emergency and catastrophe categories, “and so we will have an additional humanitarian emergency on our hands down the road.”
“Ration cuts are clearly not the way to go forward,” Skau said.
He urged world leaders to prioritize humanitarian funding and invest in long-tern solutions to conflicts, poverty, development and other root causes of the current crisis.



Jailed Istanbul Mayor Appears in Court as Supporters Gather Outside His Prison

09 April 2025, Türkiye, Sisli: A person holds a placard with the picture of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu during a protest against his arrest in front of the Sisli Municipality in Istanbul. Photo: Tolga Uluturk/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
09 April 2025, Türkiye, Sisli: A person holds a placard with the picture of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu during a protest against his arrest in front of the Sisli Municipality in Istanbul. Photo: Tolga Uluturk/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Jailed Istanbul Mayor Appears in Court as Supporters Gather Outside His Prison

09 April 2025, Türkiye, Sisli: A person holds a placard with the picture of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu during a protest against his arrest in front of the Sisli Municipality in Istanbul. Photo: Tolga Uluturk/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
09 April 2025, Türkiye, Sisli: A person holds a placard with the picture of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu during a protest against his arrest in front of the Sisli Municipality in Istanbul. Photo: Tolga Uluturk/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor appeared in court Friday in one of multiple cases against him.

Hundreds of supporters gathered outside Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, where the hearing was taking place.

Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has been held at Silivri since March 23. The case alleges that he threatened a public prosecutor and is one of six that predate his arrest last month, which led to nationwide protests.

Addressing the judge, Imamoglu said he was in court because he had won three elections against the person “who thinks he owns Istanbul,” a reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who launched his political career as the city’s mayor in the 1990s. Erdogan was heavily involved in backing his party’s candidates against Imamoglu.

The hearing was attended by Imamoglu’s wife and son, as well as lawmakers from the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Halk TV and other outlets reported. The case was adjourned to June 16.

The mayor, who is also the main opposition challenger to Erdogan’s 22-year rule at the next election, faces more than seven years in prison and a political ban for allegedly “targeting, threatening and insulting persons working in the fight against terrorism.”

The charge stems from comments he made on Jan. 20 in which he criticized Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akin Gurlek over criminal cases brought against other opposition figures.

Imamoglu was arrested on March 19 in relation to two investigations, one focusing on corruption in the Istanbul municipality and another alleging terrorism links in his party’s electoral pact with pro-Kurdish politicians.

Demonstrations calling for his release and an end to Türkiye’s democratic backsliding under Erdogan led to some 2,000 people being detained for attending protests banned by the authorities.

The mayor was officially nominated as the CHP presidential candidate while in custody. An election is due to be held in 2028 but may come sooner, and Imamoglu’s imprisonment has been widely viewed as politically motivated although the government insists Türkiye’s judiciary is independent and free of political influence.

Also Friday, two other courts in Istanbul were also holding hearings on cases against Imamoglu.

One is a bid-rigging case that dates back 10 years, when he was mayor of Istanbul’s Beylikduzu district. The other alleges illegal donation collection and stems from a video circulated in the runup to last year’s local elections showing CHP staff counting bundles of cash.