> NY Times has done no reporting substantiating the claim the hundreds of thousands have died.

NYT has no such reporting because it was reporting from ProPublica. In a series of (Pulitzer-prize finalist) articles they estimated about 700,000:

* https://www.propublica.org/series/the-end-of-aid

* https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/brett-murphy-and-anna-mar...

An analysis in The Lancet estimates that by 2030 as many as 14 million people could die, including 4.5 million children under age 5:

* https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

A recent article in Science found that after aid was shutdown there was an increase in violence in various regions where it was previously present:

* https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeh7122