Trump's order will stop aid group feeding malnourished children in Ethiopia, sources say

By Maggie Fick

The Trump administration's freeze on U.S. foreign aid globally has included a stop-work order to a program run by aid group Action Against Hunger helping severely malnourished children in refugee camps in Ethiopia, two sources said on Tuesday.

A memo on Saturday made it clear to U.S. Agency for International Development staff that the pause on foreign aid spending meant "a complete halt." The only exceptions are for emergency humanitarian food assistance and for officials returning to their duty stations.

But on Friday, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration sent a memo to the aid group ACF ordering it to stop work immediately on a number of programmes funded by its grants, including the group's "therapeutic feeding centres" for malnourished children under the age of five and their mothers in camps in the Gambella region, the sources familiar with the matter said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

A spokesperson for the aid group declined to comment.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A department spokesperson said on Sunday that the review of all foreign assistance programs is needed "to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda."

Last year, the aid group treated around 3,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the sources said. In total, the aid group oversees nutrition assistance to 400,000 people living in these camps, which are on Ethiopia's border with South Sudan.

As a result of the order they received from the State Department on Friday, the aid group is preparing to shut down the feeding centres by the end of this week, the sources said.

Unlike United Nations agencies that work on emergency food aid, such as the World Food Programme or the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, aid groups including ACF often use specific funding streams for single projects, such as the nutrition support in the Gambella camps.

The aid groups cannot take the financial risk of covering salaries or other expenditures given the immediate halt in financial support from their biggest donor.

Hours after taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid to review if it was aligned with his foreign policy priorities. Then on Friday, the State Department issued a stop-work order worldwide even for existing assistance, threatening billions of dollars of life-saving aid from the world's largest single donor.

But several aid workers have told Reuters that it is unclear what U.S.-funded assistance is covered by the emergency food aid exemption.