At the Port of Sudan, shipping containers containing antimalarial medications and life-saving antibiotics are being kept in limbo. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, essential medications are running out of stock after a government contractor with limited funds was compelled to turn off the air conditioner. Instead of going to refugee camps abroad, millions of pounds of soybeans cultivated in the United States are being diverted to warehouses.
Nonprofit organizations, farm industry groups, and federal lawmakers claim that President Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the U.S. Agency for International Development—a government agency entrusted with reducing global poverty and providing humanitarian relief—has stalled efforts to distribute vital food, medicine, and other life-saving supplies worldwide.
Despite the administration’s assertion that life-saving humanitarian help will be permitted to continue, the aid distribution system has been halted by the 90-day freeze on foreign aid, a stop-work order to evaluate agency operations, and the sudden shutdown of USAID’s headquarters.
Nearly all direct hires worldwide will be placed on administrative leave later this week, the agency said late Tuesday on its website.
At a fraction of the total federal budget, USAID sends billions of dollars in humanitarian help abroad, which advocates say is a vital lifeline to over 100 countries. The length of the halt and the amount of humanitarian funding that is locked up are unknown.
The agency’s future is currently quite questionable since Trump has used it as part of his plan to drastically change the federal government. He claims that the agency was managed by extreme lunatics and that its personnel and spending need to be closely examined. This week, USAID was transferred to the State Department.
The issues are multi-layered. Applying for a humanitarian waiver is a new process that is complicated and time-consuming. Nonprofit organizations say it is unclear whether the delays in transferring funding are deliberate or how the administration is defining vital aid that can continue in spite of the embargo.
According to Tom Hart, president and CEO of InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based humanitarian groups, many of which depend on federal funds to fund their work, vital lifesaving programs and supplies like food and medicine have been halted for more than a week. That has terrible humanitarian effects on those in need and is a huge waste of public funds and goodwill.
According to him, the provision of life-saving HIV medication has been hampered by the inability of humanitarian organizations that have been granted permission to do so to withdraw funds from the federal government’s payment system.
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Farm sector associations claim that some shipping containers carrying assistance supplies that are already on their way to their destinations are getting caught up in the mess and are being sent to warehouses and held at ports both domestically and abroad.
According to Gena Perry, who oversees a human health program for the American Soybean Association, a trade association for the soybean industry, that includes over 33,000 metric tons of soybeans and soy products used to treat acute malnutrition in East Africa and other locations.
The Michigan Bean Commission, which represents domestic bean growers, has a carveout for emergency feeding, so it should be going through, right? said Joe Cramer. However, he claimed that hasn’t been the case. He stated that all shipments had been suspended.
Both Democrats and Republicans have occasionally criticized the confusion surrounding the delivery of necessary food and medication.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said on X, “I implore @SecRubio to distribute the $340 million in American-grown food currently stalled in U.S. ports to reach those in need.” There is not much time left until this life-saving assistance expires.
In an effort to combat HIV/AIDS that has been in place for decades, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., encouraged the Trump administration to continue distributing HIV medications.
Pro-life, pro-America, and the most well-liked U.S. program in Africa, it is a Republican project. On X, Cassidy wrote. Even though this is acknowledged in a waiver, I’ve been informed that medications are still being kept in African clinics. This needs to be undone right away!
A request for comment from the State Department was not answered. There were no developments, according to Moran and Cassidy’s spokespeople.
Many humanitarian organizations have completely halted their operations as a result of the frantic attempt to thwart USAID. Since USAID has ceased paying for services, including those that have already been provided, others have reduced their offerings while fighting to maintain their financial stability.
One humanitarian organization’s top leader said that their organization owes USAID close to $50 million for services done in December and January.
A staff worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, stated, “We have essential medicines rotting in warehouses in the DRC because we can’t operate the air conditioning.” We are unable to keep fronting money.
The group also said that due to a stop-work order issued by the Trump administration, $500,000 worth of antibiotics, antimalarial medications, and other necessary medications are presently stranded at the Port of Sudan.
InterAction’s CEO, Hart, supported the group’s story.
Former senior USAID consultant Kaleb Brownlow warned that abruptly ceasing HIV antiretroviral therapy might have major health consequences, such as increased viral loads and the emergence of drug resistance.
According to Brownlow, one of the hundreds of USAID employees put off last week, “there are more viral particles circulating your body, which affects you personally but also means that you can spread the disease and increase the likelihood of transmission.”
Colleagues attempted to reroute HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis medication to warehouses worldwide during Brownlow’s last days of employment, which he described as a total panic.
According to Brownlow, there was no real effort to phase this out; it was just a total abandonment.
CORRECTION (at 7:14 p.m. ET on February 4, 2025): The initial name of a former top USAID adviser was misspelled in an earlier version of this article. Instead of Karl Brownlow, he is Kaleb Brownlow.