How is Trump’s Aid Freeze’s world staggering

In hungry Sudan, soup kitchens that feed hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone have closed.

In Thailand, war refugees with diseases that threaten life have been rejected by hospitals and have taken improvised stretchers.

In Ukraine, residents in the first line of war with Russia can go without firewood in the mid -winter.

Some of the most vulnerable populations in the world already feel the sudden limit of President Trump of billions of dollars in American help that helps defend themselves against hunger, treats diseases and provides refuge for displaced people.

In a matter of days, Mr. Trump’s order to freeze almost all foreign aid of the United States has intensified humanitarian crises and has raised deep questions about the reliability and global position of the United States.

“Everyone is going crazy,” said Atif Mukhtar of the emergency response rooms, a local voluntary group of the Sudanese capital, Jartum, about the freezing of aid.

Shortly after announcing the cut, the Trump administration abruptly changed gears. Secretary of State Marco Rubio He said this week That “humanitarian assistance that saves life” could continue, offering a respite for what he called “core” efforts to provide food, medications, shelters and other emergency needs.

But he emphasized that the postponement was “temporary nature”, with limited exceptions. Beyond that, hundreds of senior officials and workers who help distribute US help had already been dismissed or licensed, and many help efforts remain paralyzed worldwide.

Most of the soup kitchens in Jartum, the capital devastated by the battle of Sudan, have closed. Until last week, the United States was the largest source of money for voluntary kitchens that fed 816,000 people there.

“For most people, it is the only food they get,” said Homooj Kuka, spokesman for emergency response rooms, which describes Khartum as a city “on the edge of starvation.”

After American money froze last week, some of the help groups that channel those funds to food kitchens said they were not sure if they were allowed to continue. Others cut the money completely. Now, 434 of the 634 voluntary kitchens in the capital have closed, said Kuka.

“And more will be service every day,” he added.

Many of the humanitarian workers, doctors and needy people who trust American help are now considering their relationship with the United States and the message that the Trump administration is sending: the United States is Focusing on yourself.

“It seems that an easy decision of the president of the United States is silent so many lives,” said Saw Nah Pha LA, the largest refugee camp. on the border of Thai-Myanmar.

Mr. Nah Pha, who fled from Myanmar in 2007 to escape the fight there, said the staff gave him a one -week medication supply and told him that this was all they could provide. “Once my medicine ends, I have no other place to get it,” he added.

Public health implications for freezing aid are wide, health workers say. In Cambodia, who had been at the cusp to eradicate malaria with the help of the United States, officials now worry that a stop in funds will be delayed. In Nepal, a $ 72 million program has been suspended to reduce malnutrition. In South Africa and Haiti, humanitarian officials and workers care that hundreds of thousands of people can die if the Trump administration withdraws support for an American signature program to combat HIV and AIDS.

Some programs that do not fit the category of help to save lives remain frozen, while others are explicitly excluded because they fall outside the ideological limits of the administration, including any help with abortions, gender or diversity problems.

The United Nations Population Fund, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, said that due to funds for freezing funds, maternal and mental health to millions of women in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine and other places had been interrupted or eliminated. In Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned women to work, 1,700 Afghan women who worked for the agency would no longer be employed.

At stake it is not only the goodwill that the United States has built internationally, but also its work to promote the security interests of the United States. In Ivory Coast, a program sponsored by Americans that collects sensitive intelligence on incidents related to Al Qaeda has been interrupted.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of the funds for the United Nations agencies that support more than 4.5 million people displaced by a rapid growth conflict in the east of the country, have frozen, according to an American humanitarian official in The continent.

Even with Mr. Rubio’s ads that lives savings efforts could be resumed, much of the American help system in Africa remained paralyzed by confusion and interruptions, even in the areas affected by conflicts where every day counts.

“When these general orders issue, they do not seem to understand exactly what they are turning off,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, former Usaid official under the Biden administration who is now the president of Refugees International. “They are pulling levers without knowing what is at the other end.”

Some of the approximately $ 70 billion in annual foreign aid approved by Congress have been aimed to support civil society in countries with authoritarian regimes, especially in places where the United States considers that democratic profits promote US security or diplomatic interests .

In Iran, where the work of documenting arrests, executions and abuses of women’s rights is carried out by external entities financed by the United States, activists say that the decline in the United States now means that there will be few entities that responsible for the government Iranian.

A means of communication of the media in the Persian language funded by the United States government said that their employees were voluntarily working to keep the website in operation for now, but had fired all their independent workers. Without money, they said they could not move on.

“While Trump campaigned in a promise of maximum pressure on the Iranian government, his decision to reduce funds for dozens of prodemocratic and human rights initiatives backed by the United States does the opposite: applies maximum pressure on the opponents of the regime “said Omid Memarian Memarian Memarian, an expert in Iran’s human rights problems in Dawn, a Washington -based group focused on US foreign policy.

In Cambodia, Pa Tongchen, 25, depended on US financing for journalism in a country where almost all independent means have been crushed. He was scheduled to start working on February 3 as a staff reporter in a media leading by a non -profit organization that was established with the support of the United States.

Mr. Pa said he hoped to shed light on corruption through his work. “I want to help people who are vulnerable in our society,” he said. “They are ignored if no journalist informs them.”

In Egypt, where the United States finances scholarships for more than 1,000 undergraduate students in private and public universities, students remained in Limbo.

“I was in a real shock, and I didn’t know what to do, especially because they told us to leave the bedroom immediately,” said Ahmed Mahmoud, 18, a student who was about to start classes next semester at the American University But instead, I had to throw all your belongings to five boxes.

It is likely that the consequences of the freezing of aid will reverberate geopolitically, giving US rivals, such as China, a window of opportunity to present themselves as a reliable partner.

“That will differentiate China from the USA. UU. To win the hearts and minds of many of the countries of the Global South,” said Jingdong Yuan, director of the Chinese Security Program and Asia of the Peace Research Institute of Stockholm.

In Africa, the United States well -managed help machine was one of the factors that differentiated the United States in China and Russia. While Moscow displays mercenaries and Beijing mines for rare minerals, Washington has arrived through the continent with aid programs worth bills that not only save lives, but also provide a powerful form of soft diplomatic power.

Now much of that is in doubt. In the war areas of Africa, some already regret their dependence on American aid.

“It was our fault to trust a donor so much,” said Mr. Atif, about emergency response rooms in Sudan. “But this really surprised us. You cannot remove food from people who starve. That is just crazy. “

On the border of Thailand and Myanmar, the implications of Mr. Trump’s decision were marked. There, a four -year civil war and decades of struggle between the Military Board of Myanmar and the ethnic armies have pushed thousands of refugees to Thailand.

He saw Tha Ker, the leader of the Camp Mae La All seven refugees. hospitals administered by their camp.

“The first thought that came to mind was that who made this decision has no compassion at all,” said Mr. Tha Ker.

Mr. Tha Ker said he and his staff had to tell 60 patients in a hospital who had to go home. The videos published on social networks showed men who wore patients on improvised stretchers through unfaled streets.

“We explain that the hospital itself is like a person who struggles to breathe for another person’s nose,” he added. “Now that the support has stopped, it seems that we are only waiting for the end.”

The report was contributed by Mashal In New Delhi, Waravita wakes up In Colombo, Bhadra Sharma of Katmandú, Elian Peltier In Dakar, Vivian Yee and Rania Khaled In Cairo, Daniel Police in Buenos Aires, David C. Adams In Florida, Leily Nikounazar in Brussels and Narin In Phnom Penh.