JOHANNESBURG, March 3 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ World Food Programme, which gets much of its funding from the United States, is closing its southern African bureau, a communications officer said on Monday.

The WFP’s decision was communicated to staff around the world in an email on Friday from Global Executive Director Cindy McCain. The email said, “We have reached the difficult decision to close WFP’s regional bureau for southern Africa in Johannesburg,”according to Bloomberg News.

A WFP communications officer in Johannesburg told Reuters in a text message, “Yes the bureau is closing,” but did not respond to questions about why, or whether this was related to sweeping U.S. foreign aid cutsordered by President Donald Trump.

Southern Africa is still reeling from its worst drought in years, which caused countries including Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia to declare a national disaster.

WFP has been providing food and cash assistance to those affected and was aiming to reach more than 7.2 million people by this month, it said on its website.

(Reporting by Nellie Peyton in Johannesburg, Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Heinrich)