Groups say millions already hit as US guts aid

by Shaun Tandon

Donald Trump's aid freeze was announced as a review that would last 90 days. Instead, the US president has unleashed sweeping cuts that relief groups say have already hurt millions around the world.

With the world's richest person, Elon Musk, leading Trump's drive to slash spending to make way for tax cuts, the State Department announced Wednesday it had identified 92 percent of projects for elimination.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio axed 5,800 awards with $54 billion in value, the State Department said, after the Trump administration ignored a court order to unfreeze aid, which is appropriated by Congress.

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The UN children's agency UNICEF said that "millions of children" had already felt the initial effects of the suspension and then termination of grants from the United States.

"Without urgent action, without funding, more children are going to suffer malnutrition. Fewer will have access to education, and preventable illnesses will claim more lives," the agency's spokesman James Elder told a news conference in Geneva.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters the world body was alarmed by the "severe cuts" by the United States -- until now the world's largest donor in dollar terms.

"The reduction of America's humanitarian role and influence will run counter to American interests globally. I can only hope that these decisions can be reversed based on more careful reviews," Guterres told reporters.

- 'Innocent civilians' -

The International Rescue Committee said at least two million people the non-governmental group assists will be affected by the cancellation of 46 US grants.

"The countries affected by these cuts -- including Sudan, Yemen, Syria -- are home to millions of innocent civilians who are victims of war and disaster," said the group's president David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary.

In South Africa, where around 13 percent of the population is HIV positive, a halt in US funding to the country's HIV/AIDS program is forecast to contribute to more than 500,000 deaths over 10 years, the head of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation said.

PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative launched under former US president George W. Bush, is credited with saving some 26 million lives over the past two decades, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

The program until recently enjoyed wide bipartisan support, including from Rubio, a former senator.

But some aid workers say PEPFAR will be gutted without funding for related work, and notices seen by AFP showed that the United States was ending assistance to South African anti-AIDS organizations.

Trump's Democratic opponents say the cuts only benefit adversary China, which seeks to show the United States is unreliable.

- Better off 'in fireplace'? -

Trump and his allies have argued that foreign assistance is wasteful and does not serve US interests.

Representative Brian Mast, the outspoken chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, at a recent hearing cited initiatives related to LGBTQ issues and tourism promotion funded by the now-eliminated US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"I think the fact is clear that America would have been better off if your money had been simply thrown into a fireplace," Mast said.

Aid groups say much of the assistance supports US interests by promoting stability and health overseas.

By spending one dollar overseas in disease prevention, "we don't have to spend $10, $20, $100 here to combat diseases," said Tessie San Martin, CEO of the group FHI 360.

She said 90 percent of the group's work has been terminated, including HIV medication delivery, infectious disease treatment and malnutrition reduction.

"This has consequences that are not easily reversible," she said.

Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of vaccine developer IAVI said there has been "really tremendous progress" in recent years toward producing a vaccine against HIV and that, had funding not stopped, it was possible to begin to "think about how we can bring the AIDS pandemic to an end."

"This is setting us back decades," he said.

"Without question, we're going to see increased numbers of infections, we're going to see increased resistance and we're going to see really going back to where things were decades ago, which is really sad."

Another aid group leader, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, said: "We all knew that there was going to be a change with the administration.

"But I don't think anyone anticipated actions that were so malicious, incompetent and ignorant."