The executive order titled “Re-evaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” paused all foreign assistance funded by the State Department, plunging critical humanitarian projects worldwide into financial limbo.
With aid frozen and humanitarian projects facing cuts, nowhere is the fallout more immediate — or more devastating — than in war-torn nations like Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where millions of people are now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
A temporary shelter in the Kikumbe IDP camp in Tanganyika, DRC (Photo: Alexis Aubin)
The DRC – a country that shares a collective memory of ethnic cleansing after millions were killed in the 1990s – is once again experiencing violence.
For those caught in the crossfire, medical aid and humanitarian relief had been waiting for them just south of Goma.
“Congo is home to some of the most vulnerable people on the planet,” Simon Tyler, executive director at Doctors of the World UK, said.
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“It’s a double hit, at a time when we need to scale up and have higher capacity and greater resources, the rug gets pulled from under you.”
Displaced families crammed into makeshift camps with no international aid to rely on, the crisis is metastasizing into something far graver.
“In certain locations, we can bear witness that can detract from armed groups people acting with impunity and doing whatever they wish.
The Masamba health centre run by Doctors of the World in Tanganyika, DRC (Photo: Alexis Aubin)
The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the world’s largest displacements of people, with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes since the 2011 civil war. People were forced out of their homes, where they flung off to the four corners of the world, with many arriving on the shores of Europe, and the UK by small boat.
“The impact is heartbreaking,” says Ahmad Hallak, a Doctors of the World official in Syria.
“The impact is really bad, especially as most families have no income and they rely on US aid.”
Meanwhile, 16.7 million people required assistance in 2024 – the highest number since the civil war began – with aid groups already struggling to meet demand.
For every month the funding freeze continues, an estimated 9,000 patients are deprived of the care they need, according to Doctors of the World.
The scramble for exemptions
“The next day our HR department in Istanbul had to tell our staff to stay at home due to this statement,” he said.
But for organisations like Doctors of the World, navigating the bureaucratic nightmare of securing exemptions means delays and uncertainty.
As NGOs are scrambling to apply for new sources of funding, they warn that the delays are not just an administrative headache but a death sentence for those in need.
“Hundreds of thousands have been affected. The reality is this will lead to more excess mortality – it will have this level of impact.”
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