Trump’s USAID overhaul halts global aid, some food and medicine stuck in ports
President Trump’s mission to upend the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has left lifesaving food and medicine stuck in ports and warehouses.
Shipping containers packed with lifesaving antibiotics and antimalarial drugs are being held at the Port of Sudan, where they sit in limbo. Essential medicines are expiring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a cash-strapped government contractor was forced to shut off the air conditioning. Millions of pounds of American-grown soybeans that were bound for refugee camps overseas are being diverted to warehouses instead.
President Donald Trump’s mission to upend the U.S. Agency for International Development, a government organization tasked with alleviating global poverty and providing humanitarian relief, has paralyzed efforts to distribute essential food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies around the world, according to nonprofit organizations, farm industry groups and federal lawmakers.
The administration’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, a stop-work order to review agency operations and the abrupt closure of USAID’s headquarters have stalled the aid distribution system, despite the administration’s claim that “life-saving humanitarian assistance” would be allowed to continue.
The agency announced on its website late Tuesday that almost all direct hires around the world will be placed on administrative leave later this week.
Aid workers move bags of USAD lentils in Ethiopia in 2021.Jemal Countess / Getty Images fileUSAID delivers billions of dollars in humanitarian aid overseas, funding that advocates say provides a critical lifeline to more than 100 countries at only a small fraction of the overall federal budget. It’s not clear how much money in aid is tied up, or how long the pause may last.
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