Trump to block $5 billion in US aid, threatening millions
President Donald Trump has announced plans to block $5 billion in foreign aid assistance that had already been approved by Congress, AL 24 News reported via AFP on August 29.
The funding in question is said to “affect programs of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development,” as Trump noted in a letter to the House of Representatives.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has pushed aggressively to scale back or dismantle parts of the federal government.
A clear example of this is USAID, the primary US aid agency. Created in 1961 by John F. Kennedy to expand American influence in the Cold War, the agency has now been folded into the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio cut 85 percent of its initiatives.
The fallout from these cuts is devastating. In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, aid is running out as violence increases. Trump’s administration froze USAID funds, which made up 70 percent of last year’s 1.3 million dollar budget. Hospitals are struggling to help survivors of sexual violence, care for mothers and babies, and respond to disease outbreaks like mpox.
In a recent article by Save the Children, global cuts to nutrition funding are predicted to leave 15.6 million people without treatment in 2025, including over 2.3 million severely malnourished children. In countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, clinics are running out of life-saving Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), putting children at risk of death.
Yvonne Arunga, Save the Children’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said: “Hunger knows no borders and no limits and is a force that drains a child’s energy and silences their play and their dreams.”
She continued that “at a time when global hunger is skyrocketing the funding that could save children’s lives has been cut because of recent aid cuts, leading to a global shortage of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food.”
Democrats say that if Trump blocks the approved aid, there will be no chance to reach a deal to stop a “shutdown” after September 30, which makes a funding dispute much more likely.
AL 24 News via AFP, ReliefWeb, Save the Children, Maghrebi.org
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