The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is shutting down its southern Africa office in Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city, due to reduced donor funding, following major U.S. aid cuts, The Guardian reported. The agency announced that its southern and eastern Africa operations will now be merged into a single regional office in Nairobi, Kenya.
The WFP emphasized that food assistance programs will continue despite financial challenges, reaffirming its commitment to helping vulnerable communities. The U.S. previously provided $4.4 billion in funding to the WFP, accounting for nearly half of its annual budget. However, the Trump administration recently announced it would terminate 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, halting $60 billion in global humanitarian funding.
Southern Africa has been struggling with severe drought, leaving 27 million people at risk of hunger. The WFP had already appealed for $147 million in donations before the U.S. cuts took effect. Other UN agencies are also assessing the impact of the funding reductions.
