"Trump’s Plan To Slash Foreign Aid Comes As Famine Threat Is Surging"

"NAIROBI — President Trump has proposed large cuts to foreign aid at a time of acute need across Africa and the Middle East, with four countries approaching famine and 20 million people nearing starvation, according to the United Nations.

It is the first time in recent memory that so many large-scale hunger crises have occurred simultaneously, and ­humanitarian groups say they do not have the resources to respond effectively. The United Nations has requested $4.4 billion by March to “avert a ­catastrophe,” Secretary General António Guterres said last week. It has so far received only a tiny fraction of that request.

The details of Trump’s ­budget proposal have not been released, and large cuts to ­foreign assistance will face stiff opposition from Congress. So far, U.S. funding for the hunger crises has come out of a budget approved last year under President Barack Obama. But the ­famines or near-famines in parts of ­Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen underscore the reliance on continued U.S. assistance to save some of the world’s most desperate people."

Kevin Sieff reports for the Washington Post March 1, 2017.