The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups, leaving them paying out of pocket to preserve a fragile ceasefire, according to officials from the U.S. humanitarian agency.
The cutbacks threaten to halt the small gains aid workers have made combatting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. They also could endanger the tenuous truce, which the Trump administration helped cement.
USAID was supposed to fund much of the aid to Gaza as the ceasefire progressed, and the Trump administration approved over $383 million on Jan. 31 to that end, according to three USAID officials.
But since then, there have been no confirmed payments to any partners in the Middle East, they said. The officials, who have survived multiple rounds of furloughs, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Two senior officials at aid organizations confirmed they have not received any of the promised funds, after spending millions of dollars on supplies and services. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the issue and of their work in Gaza, said they could not afford to continue aid operations indefinitely.
Some organizations have already reported laying off workers and scaling down operations, according to internal USAID information shared with The Associated Press.
That could imperil the ceasefire, under which Hamas is supposed to release hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and ramping up the entry of humanitarian assistance.
“The U.S. established very specific, concrete commitments for aid delivery under the ceasefire, and there is no way … to fulfill those as long as the funding freeze is in place,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official.
www.chicagotribune.com
The cutbacks threaten to halt the small gains aid workers have made combatting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. They also could endanger the tenuous truce, which the Trump administration helped cement.
USAID was supposed to fund much of the aid to Gaza as the ceasefire progressed, and the Trump administration approved over $383 million on Jan. 31 to that end, according to three USAID officials.
But since then, there have been no confirmed payments to any partners in the Middle East, they said. The officials, who have survived multiple rounds of furloughs, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Two senior officials at aid organizations confirmed they have not received any of the promised funds, after spending millions of dollars on supplies and services. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the issue and of their work in Gaza, said they could not afford to continue aid operations indefinitely.
Some organizations have already reported laying off workers and scaling down operations, according to internal USAID information shared with The Associated Press.
That could imperil the ceasefire, under which Hamas is supposed to release hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and ramping up the entry of humanitarian assistance.
“The U.S. established very specific, concrete commitments for aid delivery under the ceasefire, and there is no way … to fulfill those as long as the funding freeze is in place,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official.
Aid efforts in Gaza slow as millions of promised USAID dollars do not arrive, agency officials say
The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments to aid groups, leaving them paying out of pocket to preserve a fragile ceasefire, accord…
www.chicagotribune.com
