Overview

• The State Department confirmed that 496 tonnes of USAID-procured high-energy biscuits will be destroyed as they expire this month.
• Incineration in Dubai will incur an extra $130,000 cost after political appointees halted foreign aid shipments in January.
• Career USAID staff say their repeated memos to acting leaders Pete Marocco and Jeremy Lewin seeking distribution approval went unanswered.
• A June agreement recovered 622 tonnes of the same biscuits for Syria, Bangladesh and Myanmar, yet over 60,000 tonnes of U.S.-purchased food remains undelivered globally.
• Cuts to USAID staffing and its subsumption under the State Department have disrupted logistics and threaten U.S. hunger relief efforts.