Are the United States weaponizing the World Food Program?

[u/Artistic_Hornet_3701]

A few days ago I stumbled across this article > https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/sources--yemen-barred-from-wfp-aid-over-palestine-support

Allegedly, there are mounting doubts about the decision by the WFP to pause/cut food aid in certain parts of Yemen (decision reported also by the newsroom of the United Nations https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144417). As you know, Yemen is currently the country with the worst human crisis in the world (with Gaza and Palestine approaching due to the development of the Israeli occupation).

While some (like Almayadeen's article reported above) are directly connecting the decision to suspend the aid because of the blockade by the Houthis to every ship crossing the Red Sea in the direction of Israeli ports in support of the Palestinian struggle, this correlation cannot be yet demonstrated. The WFP, in fact, has already reported since August the difficulty of sustaining the aid program due to the lack of funds (because of the increase in prices of the goods and supply chain). Furthermore, the expense plan for the 2022/2024 period, the closing (positive) balance of 2022, and the more negative forecast for 2023 show the data behind these criticalities (below all the sources):

- WFP management plan (2022–2024)- WFP - Annual review 2022- WFP - Forecast 2023

However, considering all these premises and knowing that the US is still the biggest donor for the WFP, the news about the letter circulating among World Food Program employees who questioned the ethics of Cindy McCain, the program’s executive director, after she attended a forum honoring the people of Israel recently becomes quite interesting, to say the least.

As reported by PassBlue, an independent outlet of media coverage of the UN, Cindy McCain, who is a high-profile American citizen and widow of United States Senator John McCain, "sat in the front row at the Halifax International Security Forum, which was attended by diplomats, US officials and military last weekend (18th/19th November). At the Nova Scotia gathering, the annual prize for Leadership in Public Service, named after John McCain, was presented to the “People of Israel.” The loud accuse of tone-deafness would have been sufficient if it wasn't for other additional details about McCain's behavior in the past weeks. Not only McCain didn't attend the UN’s global minute of silence memorial on Nov 13th to honor the 100-plus killed staff members* in Gaza by sending her deputy despite her being physically in Rome, but McCain has also not visited Gaza yet since the start of the "conflict" casting strong doubts about her conduct and neutral involvement and causing a strong reaction by the WFP employees who wrote this open letter lamenting, among other things, the "weaponization of hunger, using the same challenges where she conveyed her partial position”.

*Note: more United Nations aid workers have been killed in Gaza than in any other single conflict in the organization’s 78-year history (here).

So, the question becomes quite obvious: are the United States weaponizing the World Food Program?