Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest aid organizations, announced on Monday that it was “forced” to suspend its humanitarian activities in almost 20 nations.
The NRC said in a statement that “for the first time in our history, (we) will have to suspend ongoing and urgent humanitarian work for hundreds of thousands of people in nearly 20 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement”.
These dramatic measures are taken in response to the US’s funding of our international humanitarian operations being stopped, partially suspended, or not reimbursed.
The NRC said that it had “assisted 1.6 million people through US-supported programmes” in 2024.
Just under 20 percent or $150 million of its funding came from the United States last year, it added.
The NRC claimed that it has already had to halt the Ukrainian government’s plan to provide “emergency support to 57, 000 people in communities along the frontlines.”
It said it was being “forced to , lay off aid workers around the world”, including in Afghanistan, and would soon have “to halt US-funded lifesaving humanitarian programmes” in Burkina Faso and Sudan’s Darfur region.
The NRC claimed that there are “millions of dollars in outstanding payment requests to the US government” and that hundreds of thousands of people would be “left without vital assistance that previously received US humanitarian funding” if those funds weren’t provided.
Trump has called for the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes US humanitarian aid worldwide, and ordered the suspension of foreign aid since returning to the White House last month.
Source: Channels TV
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