Life-saving medicines sit unused in warehouses, critical health programs have ground to a halt, and aid workers worldwide are scrambling to determine which humanitarian programs can continue following a sweeping U.S. foreign aid freeze implemented in January 2025.
The 90-day pause in foreign assistance has created what one aid worker in Myanmar described as “mayhem,” leaving crucial programs in limbo despite official waivers meant to protect essential humanitarian work.
In Africa, warehouses filled with mosquito nets and insecticides remain locked as the critical window for malaria prevention campaigns slips away. The timing couldn’t be worse – these campaigns must be completed before the rainy season brings an explosion in mosquito populations. According to Malaria No More, the freeze could prevent the distribution of 15.6 million life-saving treatments, nine million nets, and 48 million doses of preventative medicine.
The impact extends far beyond Africa. In Haiti, HIV treatment programs await authorization to dispense medicines that prevent mother-to-child transmission. In Bangladesh, services for over a million Rohingya refugees living in camps have been disrupted, as the U.S. typically funds about 55% of their assistance.
Aid workers report a near-complete breakdown in communication with U.S. officials. “We asked: Can you tell us exactly which programs we need to stop? Then we got a message saying ‘no more guidance is forthcoming,'” one Geneva-based aid official told Reuters.
“This leaves us in a situation where you have to make a choice of which program is ‘life-saving.'”
The turmoil has hit the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) particularly hard. The agency, which traditionally serves as America’s primary humanitarian aid organization, faces dramatic downsizing from over 10,000 staff to just 611, according to internal notices.
Staff have been barred from their Washington headquarters and instructed not to communicate externally about the aid freeze.
The real-world consequences are already emerging.
In Thailand, the International Rescue Committee was forced to shut down hospitals and clinics in seven refugee camps along the Myanmar-Thai border. One elderly woman dependent on oxygen died four days after being discharged when her facility closed.
As millions of lives hang in the balance, aid workers face an impossible choice: risk continuing programs without guaranteed funding, or shut down services that communities depend on for survival. With the 90-day review period still ongoing, the full impact of this unprecedented pause in U.S. foreign assistance remains to be seen.
For many on the ground, the situation grows more dire by the day. As one USAID contractor warned about the stalled malaria prevention campaigns: “There is a small window to do those campaigns which is going to close rapidly.”
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