US aid workers lobbied for weeks to save food stocks from destruction after Trump cuts
By Ammu Kannampilly, Jonathan Landay and Jessica Donati
(Reuters) -With 1,100 metric tons of emergency food rations nearing expiry in a U.S. government warehouse in Dubai after President Donald Trump's aid freeze, it took a warning of "wasted tax dollars" for a top U.S. official to eventually agree to a deal for the supplies to be used, sources told Reuters.
The deal saved 622 metric tons of the energy-dense biscuits in June, but 496 metric tons, worth $793,000 before they expired this month, will be destroyed, according to two internal U.S. Agency for International Development memos reviewed by Reuters, dated May 5 and May 19, and four sources familiar with the matter.
The wasted biscuits will be turned into landfill or incinerated in the United Arab Emirates, two sources said. That will cost the U.S. government an additional $100,000, according to the May 5 memo verified by three sources familiar with the matter.
The delays and waste are further examples of how the freeze and then cutbacks, which led to the firing of thousands of USAID employees and contractors, have thrown global humanitarian operations into chaos.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-aid-workers-lobbied-weeks-162557202.html