Cnn
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The State Department said Thursday that vital wheat aboard a shipping ship sailing towards the south of Yemen was not going to be wasted, because it responded to CNN reports that the recent Trump administration cuts to humanitarian funding could cause wheat rot or be looted once it arrived at the port of Aden.
“We are actively considering options for wheat and has no intention of allowing food to get lost,” said a spokesperson for the State Department in a press release provided to CNN. “The redirection of humanitarian cargo is not uncommon and has occurred with American products for Yemen before.”
The spokesman also confirmed that the ship carrying wheat had left Oregon in early April and is expected to arrive in southern Yemen in mid-May, as CNN previously reported.
It is not clear if the carrier could move mid-term paths and go to a new final destination, or if wheat on the ship can be discharged in southern Yemen before being sent to another country in need.
The State Department did not respond to what funding would be used to guarantee that wheat would finally go to people in need, since the American agency for international development contracts with the United Nations World Food Program, including for Yemen, remains canceled. Sources had previously declared to CNN that, therefore, WFP would not have the authority or funding to do anything with wheat once it has arrived in Yemen next month.
The officials of the State Department had not been in contact with PAM to discuss the fate of the carrier directed to Yemen, sources close to the situation in CNN said. The State Department refused to comment on this story more. The WFP did not respond to a request for comments.
Although this is not a common practice, ships carrying humanitarian aid can sometimes be redirected to a different destination, including, for example, in the case of a natural disaster or if the circumstances at the original destination of the carrier make unloading of the aid too difficult, said a familiar source. Redirecting such a ship would result in additional costs, according to another source, which noted that it is not clear where this money would come from.
PAM estimates that around half – 17 million people – from the population of Yemen, are unsafe. The Yemeni people were devastated by a year’s civil war that started with the Houthi rebels who storm the capital of the country of Sanaa and the dismantling of the internationally recognized government of the country in 2014.
The drastic cuts of the USAID and its funding in recent months have wreaked havoc on the world ecosystem of humanitarian aid, the dozens of companies and organizations causing their contracts or receiving delayed or partial payments.
Even the future of groups that still have active contracts from USAID remain deeply uncertain. Although the senior officials of the Trump administration initially declared that the humanitarian rescue programs would not be on the Cup block, the decision earlier this month to end the financing of the USAID for emergency food aid has amazed the humanitarian workers.
Last week, the spokesman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said that the administration’s decision to dismiss Yemen prices was partly “due to the concern of the financing of terrorist groups”, including the Houthis.
“These concerns concerning the funding of the United Nations have been documented and discussed for years, which is why USAID has interrupted all food aid in northern Yemen by WFP, in particular to mitigate any interference of the Houthis,” said Bruce.
