US aid to Afghanistan is a ‘danger’, says Reuters aid chief
by Charlotte Greenfield
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The immediate and dire consequences of US President Donald Trump’s order to freeze foreign aid for 90 days will be severe cuts in aid operations in Afghanistan, the head of a major humanitarian organization said.
Upon taking office on Monday, Trump ordered a temporary freeze on foreign development aid pending a review of the effectiveness and coherence of his foreign policy.
The scope of the order was unclear, including whether it would apply to humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, which is provided by non-governmental organizations and UN agencies.
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters the decision left Afghanistan’s biggest donor in the throes of further cuts.
“A 90-day freeze on all aid, no new funding, no new transfers, will have immediate and dire consequences…an already starving aid campaign for the poorest and most vulnerable girls and women and civilians in Afghanistan,” he said in a video interview from Kabul late Tuesday. .
The war-torn country is home to more than 23 million people in need of humanitarian aid – more than half the country’s population – but aid has dwindled as donors face global crises and diplomats fear the Taliban’s restrictions on women threaten the lives of many. including education and health.
Development funds, the backbone of government finances, were cut after the Taliban took power and foreign forces left in 2021.
Reuters reported last year that non-governmental groups have played a critical role in filling the humanitarian gap.
“If you go back, it was a well-funded operation, we got development aid, then maybe we could have had a three-month moratorium. We can’t do it anymore,” Egeland said.
Trump said at a rally shortly before he took office that aid to Afghanistan would go toward recovering billions of dollars worth of military equipment abandoned by US forces.
Egeland said he raised the issue of female education with Taliban leaders during his four visits to Kabul since they took over the country. In his last trip, he told all girls and women that they should open schools and universities.
“You can’t teach half your population,” he said.
The Taliban has banned Afghan women from working in NGOs since 2022, a position it reiterated in a second announcement late last year.
Egeland said that in practice his company and others were able to work around the ban.
But that lack of funding put that in jeopardy.
“What Western capitals do not understand is that the recent dismissal of female workers, the expulsion of girls and women[recipients]is not a ban on the Taliban … it is a cut of aid,” he said.
