Trump order freezing foreign aid halts programs worldwide, prompts confusion and rush for waivers

WASHINGTON—A Trump administration order pausing almost all foreign aid has left counterterrorism training in Somalia, HIV treatment in Uganda, narcotics interdiction in Colombia, prosthetics for refugees from Myanmar, and many more U.S.-funded overseas assistance programs in sudden limbo.

The Jan. 24 directive stated that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development “shall not provide foreign assistance" until a high level review of the programs is completed, except to Israel and Egypt and in severe cases where emergency food assistance is needed.

Rather than just pausing new funding, the cable instructed U.S. government officials to issue so-called “stop-work" orders to nongovernmental organizations and aid groups from using U.S. funding they have already received.

The three-month pause stunned U.S. officials and aid workers, who said the interruption in the roughly $60 billion foreign aid budget for this year could severely damage vital programs in some countries and leave an opening for China and other adversaries to supplant Washington as a more reliable benefactor.

“Everyone in my world is walking around today with our hair on fire and our jaws on the floor," said Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former senior USAID official in the Biden and Obama administrations.

Aid groups and U.S. officials responsible for administering assistance programs have flooded the State Department with requests for waivers, arguing that even a temporary halt could cost lives.

Because of the State Department’s role in overseeing arms transfers, the aid suspension appears to freeze financing that the State Department provides to Taiwan and Ukraine for U.S. weapons, although that is not the only source of arms for those countries.

Border Health Development Foundation helps people injured in the Myanmar war receive medical treatment in Thailand.

A State Department spokeswoman said the pause is needed so the agency can ensure the foreign assistance programs are efficient and support President Trump’s “America First agenda." She didn’t respond to questions about which waivers might be granted, the specific programs that are being paused or the implications abroad.

In Uganda, where an estimated 1.43 million people are living with HIV, health authorities have raised the alarm about the abrupt interruption of the funding to reverse years of steady gains against HIV/Aids. With an annual funding of around $500 million, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar, has been providing treatment to most Ugandans living with HIV across 24 districts, according to the Uganda Aids Commission.

Pepfar’s investments in HIV prevention measures are projected to avert some 190,000 new HIV infections by 2030, according to the health ministry.

“We are trying to discuss with some of our partners to see how to navigate," said Brian Aliganyira, who runs an HIV/AIDS-treatment program at the Ark Wellness Hub, a clinic in Central Uganda. “Honestly, we don’t know what will happen to our patients."

In Somalia, the stop-work order has spurred concerns about how a warehouse full of weapons used by government forces in Mogadishu who have undergone U.S. training will be safeguarded. Security has been provided by local nationals employed by a private company under U.S. oversight, people familiar with the matter said.

State Department officials were considering steps Monday to address the problem, but it remains unclear whether a waiver will be issued or if alternative security arrangements will be devised.

Washington’s funding has been particularly important in some of the largest humanitarian crises in recent years. Last year, for instance, it contributed 47% to the U.N.’s emergency response plan for Sudan and nearly 70% of that for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In eastern Syria, U.S.-funded aid groups delivering food, water and sanitation services to a 40,000 person refugee camp halted operations within minutes of last Friday’s order, three aid workers said.

The Al Hol camp is filled with the families of Islamic State militants and others swept up in the chaos of northeast Syria during the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State. A cutoff of U.S.-funded assistance would encourage the terrorist group’s sympathizers to recruit for their cause, the aid workers said.

“When services are canceled, it creates unrest," said a senior aid worker at the camp. “Those who don’t have their needs met could be more susceptible to radicalization."

On Monday the State Department issued a waiver that enabled the suspended contracts to be renewed for two weeks, allowing aid workers to once again pay security staff in the sprawling tent city.

The U.S. is by far the world’s largest funder of humanitarian aid and one of the largest contributors to foreign assistance more broadly. In 2023, the last year for which internationally comparable figures are available, the U.S. was responsible for $64.7 billion of the $223.3 billion in foreign aid provided by rich countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the One Campaign.

Trump administration officials said their goal is to ensure that foreign aid benefited the U.S. and American taxpayers. But critics say that freeze could hurt U.S. interests.

In Colombia, the pause threatens to deepen security challenges as the country is seeing a resurgence in cocaine production and guerrilla warfare, all while the Trump administration is pressuring partners to curb drug trafficking.

Colombia is slated to receive $380 million in 2025 for counternarcotics and economic development initiatives, more than any other country in the Western Hemisphere.

In another conflict zone, people injured in the war in Myanmar are transported by Thailand-based Border Health Development Foundation, which also pays for their treatment in Thai hospitals and provides rehabilitation and prostheses for those with permanent disabilities.

The group depends on the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration for 24% of its budget and received a stop-work order on Sunday, said its director, Mahn Mahn.

The group has already cut food rations to patients in half and reduced the salaries for medical and other staff by 25%. If the aid freeze lasts for longer than 90 days or U.S. funding is cut off entirely, they will no longer be able to pay for critical medicine or their patients’ hospital bills, Mahn Mahn said.

Around 50 amputees currently waiting for prostheses might never receive them. “We can find contingencies for three months, but if it is longer than three months we cannot," he said.

The State Department is one of the leading funders of Chinese civil society organizations, providing much needed support to human-rights groups straining against the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on minorities.

“If the pause becomes a full-fledged stop…Beijing will be overjoyed," said Tom Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law.

Kejal Vyas and Nicholas Bariyo contributed to this article.

Write to Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com, Gabriele Steinhauser at Gabriele.Steinhauser@wsj.com and Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com