US suspends assistance to Somalia’s federal government, alleging it seized food aid
January 7, 2026
The State Department says it has suspended all U.S. assistance to Somalia’s federal government over allegations that Somali officials destroyed an American-funded warehouse belonging to the World Food Program and seized 76 metric tons of food aid intended for impoverished civilians. The department said Wednesday that “the Trump Administration has a zero-tolerance policy for waste, theft, and diversion of life-saving assistance.” It’s not immediately clear how much assistance would be affected by the suspension because the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid expenditures and not released new country-by-country data.