Korede Abdullah in Lagos
The US State Department has frozen nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately, following President Donald Trump’s executive order to put a hold on such aid for 90 days.
This move threatens billions of dollars of funding from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs worldwide, including lifesaving global health aid, development assistance, military aid, and clean water distribution. The only exemptions are emergency food assistance and foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt.
Humanitarian and State Department officials are reeling from the scope of the executive order and subsequent cable.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier on Friday, sent a cable to all US diplomatic posts outlining the move, which analysts say, threatens billions of dollars of funding from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs worldwide.
The cable calls for immediate “stop work” orders on existing foreign assistance and pauses new aid.
InterAction, an alliance of international nongovernmental organizations, warned that the freeze “interrupts critical life-saving work” and creates “dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill.” The impact of the freeze will be immense, as the US is consistently the world’s largest humanitarian donor.
The freeze has sparked widespread concern, with Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks and Lois Frankel expressing concerns about the impact on programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
The International AIDS Society warned that halting PEPFAR would place millions of lives in jeopardy.
IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn emphasized in a statement in a statement, “This is a matter of life or death. PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people — and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”
