The State Department ordered a radical freezing of new funding on Friday for almost all American foreign aid, with the exception of emergency food programs and military aid in Israel and Egypt.
Order threatened to put an end to many billions of dollars in the United States to support health, education, development, vocational training, the fight against corruption. , security assistance and other efforts.
The United States provides more foreign aid worldwide than any other country, with a budget of around 60 billion dollars in 2023, or around 1 % of the US budget.
The order of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, transmitted in a cable sent to American embassies around the world, specifically exempt emergency food programs, such as those who help feed millions of people in a famine that extends in Sudan at war.
The cable describes the execution of the freeze’s freeze decree signed on Monday by President Donald Trump.
But Friday’s prescription particularly disappointed humanitarian officials by not incaping specific exemptions for vital health programs, such as clinics and vaccination programs.
A world-renowned anti-HIV program, the presidential emergency aid plan for the fight against AIDS, was among those apparently included in the spending freezing, planned to last at least three months. Known as Pepfar, this program would have saved 25 million lives, including 5.5 million children, since its launch by Republican President George W. Bush.
Some humanitarian projects began to receive their first orders to stop work due to the frost on Friday afternoon.
Certain leading humanitarian organizations also interpreted the directive as an immediate order to stop humanitarian work funded by the United States on a global scale, said a former senior official of the American agency for international development. Many would probably stop their activities immediately so as not to incur additional costs, the official said. The official was not allowed to speak publicly and expressed himself on condition of anonymity.
The suspension of funding “could have consequences of life or death” for children and families around the world, said Abby Maxman, director of Oxfam America.
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“By suspending foreign development aid, the Trump administration threatens the life and future of communities in crisis and abandons the long-standing bipartite approach in the United States in matters of foreign aid, which supports people in A function of their needs, regardless of policies, “said Maxman in a statement.
At the United Nations, deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said: “These are bilateral decisions, but we are waiting for countries that have the capacity to generously finance development aid. »»
Even if Rubio’s order exempted military assistance from the allies from the allies, Israel and Egypt, nothing indicated a similar derogation allowing the vital military assistance of the United States to Ukraine.
Biden administration has rejected military aid to Ukraine before leaving their duties due to doubts about the continuation of this aid by Trump. But there are still about $ 3.85 billion in funding authorized by the congress for any future shipping shipping to Ukraine and it is now up to Trump to decide to spend it or not.
This radical gel marks the start of the implementation of Trump’s commitment and other Republicans to suppress American aid programs. The Republican representative of Florida, Brian Mast, the new president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, promised this week that the Republicans would question “each dollar and each diplomat” of the budget of the State Department to s ‘Ensure that he met their standards for the strict necessary.
The frost was necessary to ensure that “credits are not duplicated, are effective and are consistent with the foreign policy of President Trump,” said the world cable.
Over the next month, standards for an examination of all foreign aid should be set to guarantee that it is “aligned with President Trump’s foreign policy agenda,” said the cable. And within three months, the government’s examination should be completed and a later report will be produced so that Rubio makes recommendations to the President.
–The editor of Associated Press Edith M. LEDERER at the United Nations contributed.
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