The United States has frozen all assistance to Somalia after accusing Somali officials of destroying a U.S.-funded World Food Programme warehouse and illegally seizing food aid.
The move comes as Somalia faces a worsening food crisis, with nearly 4.4 million people projected to face acute food insecurity amid a fast-escalating drought expected to worsen in the coming months.
In a statement on Wednesday on the social media platform X, the U.S. State Department said it was “deeply concerned by reports that Federal Government of Somalia officials have destroyed a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse and illegally seized 76 metric tons of donor-funded food aid for vulnerable Somalis.”