United States President Donald Trump’s freeze on funds to help international organisations is affecting peace movements in Africa, according to experts. Source: Crux.
The Jesuit Institute – along with a broad range of NGOs and charities – is expressing shock at the sudden freeze in donor funding as Western powers seek to rebuild their militaries or dedicate more resources to domestic priorities.
In an April 2 collective statement, the NGOs said the shrinking donor funding is worsening already precarious humanitarian crises in countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where years of war have rendered millions homeless and forced millions more to a life of pain and penury in refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
“The funding freeze has had a devastating impact on war-affected areas,” Johan Viljoen, the director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute of the Southern Africa Bishops Conference, said.
“Recent reports indicate that around 700,000 people have been displaced in Goma (in eastern DRC), now living in IDP camps. Nearly half of the funding for their essential resources was previously provided by USAID, but with the freeze in place, that support has completely stopped, leaving them without the aid they urgently need,” he said.
Fr John Gbemboyo, Pastoral and Social Communication Coordinator in the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said the aid freeze has had real consequences for real people, many of whom depended on such donor funding to access basic services.
“At times, food is unavailable for those in need, and shelter is lacking for people displaced by war. This crisis has severely impacted ordinary individuals – the true victims of conflict in their countries,” he said.
The NGOs said freezing aid has had a “devastating impact on people facing already crippling humanitarian crises”.
“From the raging conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the makeshift shelters of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, impossible choices are being made to ration food, medicine, and services,” their statement reads.
“These are not mere efficiencies, they are brutal decisions on which mother receives assistance and protection and which does not, which child lives or dies.”
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Catholic groups say shrinking donor funding worsening humanitarian crises in Africa (By Ngala Killian Chimtom, Crux)
