Crucial aid sits in warehouses worldwide as USAID employees are told to stop working

Though humanitarian aid was supposed to be exempt from the Trump-ordered disruption, shipments of lifesaving food and drugs are held up around the globe.

Feb. 4, 2025, 3:09 PM PST / Updated Feb. 5, 2025, 7:06 AM PST
By Suzy Khimm

Shipping containers packed with lifesaving antibiotics and antimalarial drugs are being held at the Port of Sudan, where they sit in limbo. Essential medicines are expiring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a cash-strapped government contractor was forced to shut off the air conditioning. Millions of pounds of American-grown soybeans that were bound for refugee camps overseas are being diverted to warehouses instead.

President Donald Trump’s mission to upend the U.S. Agency for International Development, a government organization tasked with alleviating global poverty and providing humanitarian relief, has paralyzed efforts to distribute essential food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies around the world, according to nonprofit organizations, farm industry groups and federal lawmakers.

The administration’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, a stop-work order to review agency operations and the abrupt closure of USAID’s headquarters have stalled the aid distribution system, despite the administration’s claim that “life-saving humanitarian assistance” would be allowed to continue.

USAID announced on its website late Tuesday that almost all direct hires around the world will be placed on administrative leave later this week, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Those expected to keep working will be notified by 3 p.m. Thursday.

The workforce totals more than 10,000 direct hires and a type of contractor known as personal services contractors, according to federal data. Around two-thirds of staff work overseas.

USAID delivers billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, funding that advocates say provides a critical lifeline to more than 100 countries at only a small fraction of the overall federal budget. It’s not clear how much money in aid is tied up, or how long the pause may last.

The agency’s future is now deeply uncertain; Trump has seized on it as part of his push to radically reshape the federal government, saying it was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” and the agency’s spending and staff must be scrutinized. The State Department took control of USAID this week.

Even amid the chaos, there was supposed to be a way to get aid through, but there are layers of problems. The process to apply for a humanitarian waiver is new and mired in confusion and delays. According to nonprofit groups, it’s not clear how the administration is defining “lifesaving” aid that can continue despite the freeze, or whether the holdups in releasing funds are intentional.

“For more than a week now, essential lifesaving programs and commodities like food and medicine have been stopped,” said Tom Hart, president and CEO of InterAction, an alliance of U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations, many of which rely on federal aid to fund their work. “That’s a massive waste of taxpayer money and goodwill, as well as devastating humanitarian impacts on people in need.”

Even aid groups that have received the waivers to distribute lifesaving HIV medication have been unable to draw down funding from the federal government’s payment system, hampering their ability to distribute the medicine, he said.

Some shipping containers full of aid materials already en route to their destinations are being diverted to warehouses and held at ports in the U.S. and overseas, caught up in the confusion, according to farm industry groups.

That includes about 33,000 metric tons of soybeans and soy products used to treat severe malnutrition in East Africa and other regions, according to Gena Perry, who leads a human health program for the American Soybean Association, an industry trade group.

“There’s a carveout for emergency feeding, so that’s supposed to be flowing through, yeah?” said Joe Cramer, director of the Michigan Bean Commission, which represents domestic bean growers. But he said that hasn’t been happening. “There’s a freeze on shipping anything,” he said.

The confusion around delivering essential food and medicine has drawn rare criticism from Republican lawmakers, as well as Democrats.

“I urge @SecRubio to distribute the $340 million in American-grown food currently stalled in U.S. ports to reach those in need,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., wrote on X. “Time is running out before this life-saving aid perishes.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., urged the Trump administration to resume the distribution of HIV drugs under a decades old initiative to fight HIV/AIDS.

“It is a Republican initiative, it is pro-life, pro-America and the most popular U.S. program in Africa,” Cassidy wrote on X. “There’s even a waiver acknowledging this, yet I’m told that drugs are still being held at clinics in Africa. This must be reversed immediately!!”

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Moran and Cassidy said there were no updates.

The breakneck effort to stymie USAID has prompted many humanitarian groups to suspend their work entirely. Others have scaled back services while struggling to stay financially solvent as USAID has stopped payments — including those for services already rendered.

A senior leader of one humanitarian organization said their group was owed nearly $50 million from USAID for work completed in December and January.

“We have essential medicines rotting in warehouses in the DRC because we can’t operate the air conditioning,” said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity over fears of retribution. “We can’t continue to front money.”

The group also said it had $500,000 worth of antibiotics, antimalarial drugs and other essential medicines currently stuck at the Port of Sudan because of the Trump administration’s stop-work order.

Hart, the CEO of InterAction, corroborated the group’s account.

Kaleb Brownlow, a former senior USAID adviser, said there could be serious health implications from suddenly stopping medication like HIV antiretrovirals, including higher viral loads and the development of drug resistance.

“There’s more viral particles circulating your body, which causes an impact to your own self, but also means that you can spread the disease and increase the likelihood of transmission,” said Brownlow, who was among the hundreds of USAID workers who were laid off last week.

Brownlow described his final days of work as a “complete scramble” as colleagues tried to redirect HIV, malaria and tuberculosis medication to warehouses around the globe.

“There was no attempt to actually phase this out — this was just a complete abandonment,” said Brownlow.

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Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

View it from this angle
These are cold and hard business type decisions aimed at cutting government expenditure the same that would be taken to cut expenditure in a business

The problem that faces most governments is a simple one
They simply do not collect enough revenue from with the country from the taxpayers to finance running their own countries let alone giving aid of any sort to other countries
They therefore borrow money from various sources to make up the shortfall in the revenue they need to

Firstly have enough money to fund their own countries needs whatever these are
Secondly the money they give to finance aid to others

The problem is the more you borrow the more and more expensive it becomes. (Guess who picks up the bill the taxpayers so now you are further eroding what you are collecting to pay back debt because you already had a shortfall to start with).

Eventually you no matter which country you are will reach the point where either no one will lend you anymore money or secondly get to the point where you simply are unable to service and payback those loans) both have some very serious fallouts that are going to result from them.

Northwest · M

@Avectoijesuismoi OK, but this the issue here is that this is money that we already spent, for food and healthcare supplies that are not rotting away on docks.

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JustNik · 51-55, F

@Avectoijesuismoi might be a bit more revenue if they and their eye-wateringly wealthy donors contributed to it, but instead they seek power so they can hoard and just increase suffering and waste elsewhere.

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@NorthwestLet me start by saying I neither agree not disagree with the policy that has come into force.
The issue around the supplies sitting on the docks could be the add on expense of transportation of them.
Very often although the actual supplies have been paid for and or donated, the transportation to actually get it from A to B still is to be paid. When you are using cargo planes or ships to do so they are usually privately owned, they want paying to take it. It all comes out of that aid budget that has now been suspended which basically means that transportation is not going to be paid for, so the supplies are now stuck probably in private storage facilities that are also having to be paid for out the same aid budget.
Aid/charity is an expensive business to run there are many costs involved that the public is actually completely unaware of in general. There are equally very few companies that do the actual transportation of it that will do it without expecting payment for doing it or for storing it either at end.
Further as a country someone has got to decide the brutal fact that maybe it is an expenditure they can simply no longer afford to have, bottom line is it is that countries citizens that will end up paying the bill.
No countries leader with any sense should be placing extra burdens on his citizens in the form of higher or extra taxation just to literally give that money away.
The other problem with having aid/charity is it should only be a short term fix not something that spirals on for years and decades because it also becomes the norm and the receiving end does nothing to actually try to help themselves to get out of the mess they are in.
Be it the government or the people themselves they just start to expect that someone will keep on giving them what they need to have.

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@JustNik It is known as the Self Preservation Society, but it is equally not the responsibility of wealthy people to fund other people or other people in other countries.
Having said that lots of wealthy people do actually donate some very anonymously to many charitable foundations but those are ones of there own choice.
It is actually a tax deductible too

But the real issue with aid is that it only should be used as a short term fix as it is just not sustainable for it to carry on and on for years or decades. It gets to the point where those giving the aid simply cannot afford to do it any longer .
The government, country or people receiving the aid get to the point where they make little or no effort to actually get themselves to do anything to even try to assist themselves, because there is someone else dealing with it for them by constantly sending food, medical supplies etc to them.
There are several countries I can think of that could have very good economies if they had a decent management and they made some effort to do it. But because they get aid they can't be bothered to make the effort to do it.

Northwest · M

@Avectoijesuismoi

Let me start by saying I neither agree not disagree with the policy that has come into force.
The issue around the supplies sitting on the docks could be the add on expense of transportation of them.
Very often although the actual supplies have been paid for and or donated, the transportation to actually get it from A to B still is to be paid. When you are using cargo planes or ships to do so they are usually privately owned, they want paying to take it. It all comes out of that aid budget that has now been suspended which basically means that transportation is not going to be paid for, so the supplies are now stuck probably in private storage facilities that are also having to be paid for out the same aid budget.
Aid/charity is an expensive business to run there are many costs involved that the public is actually completely unaware of in general. There are equally very few companies that do the actual transportation of it that will do it without expecting payment for doing it or for storing it either at end.
Further as a country someone has got to decide the brutal fact that maybe it is an expenditure they can simply no longer afford to have, bottom line is it is that countries citizens that will end up paying the bill.
No countries leader with any sense should be placing extra burdens on his citizens in the form of higher or extra taxation just to literally give that money away.
The other problem with having aid/charity is it should only be a short term fix not something that spirals on for years and decades because it also becomes the norm and the receiving end does nothing to actually try to help themselves to get out of the mess they are in.
Be it the government or the people themselves they just start to expect that someone will keep on giving them what they need to have.

You clearly have no clue how USAID works or why the program was started. Are you from one of the beneficiary countries?

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@Northwest No not at all and yes you are right I am not that knowledgeable on that specific aid
But as aid goes in general it does eventually become unaffordable to the country that is constantly giving it.
Is it a case of it is because Trump has done the dirty deed of stopping it that is the real factor that is causing the issue and upsetting everyone.

His first priority as President Of America is to put America and American Citizens first.
Maybe he has got to make some brutal hard decisions to achieve having the funding to do something for his own country and people first.

Northwest · M

@Avectoijesuismoi

]No not at all

You're clearly not from the USA. Russia perhaps?

and yes you are right I am not that knowledgeable on that specific aid
But as aid goes in general it does eventually become unaffordable to the country that is constantly giving it.

Then you're not qualified to venture an opinion in "general", because there is no program out there that's similar to USAID, and no it is not a welfare program for other countries. The program is mostly self-serving, because sooner or late the issues USAID handles, stems the flow, before it becomes a problem for white people.

An Ebola outbreak in Africa, will become a problem for the USA, if it is not handled at the source.

Is it a case of it is because Trump has done the dirty deed of stopping it that is the real factor that is causing the issue and upsetting everyone.

It's more like this is something that DOGE dismantled before it took time to understand it and the role it plays in stabilizing the world around us, but your comment demonstrates that you having little knowledge about the USA.

His first priority as President Of America is to put America and American Citizens first.
Maybe he has got to make some brutal hard decisions to achieve having the funding to do something for his own country and people first.

Your translation software is not working as it should.

Isolationism does not work in a forever connected world, but it plays well to his hick base, and trolls.

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@Northwest

DOGE love it or hate it is simply another name for Auditors/a sort of Business Rescue Plan there function is purely aimed at reducing the Bottomline expenditure, it would be the same if they were going through a Big Corporate Company, they look at it purely as numbers coming in and numbers going out, there is absolutely no viewing for any other angle as to what it will cost humans in suffering etc.

Which is one of the things that Mr Trump was very big on during his campaign how he was going to make the Federal Government leaner and cost the America taxpayer less than it currently does.

Whether you and I agree or not as to whether it should be continued to be funded or not is really quite immaterial there is only one person's opinion that really matters that is Mr Trump, the American people put him there and empowered him to make these type of decisions.

As I understand it Mr Trump has not completely terminated USAID but suspended it for 90 days so that it can be reviewed as to where and how the aid goes to and bottom line how all the money $$$ is being spent.

There are two possibilities
1. He decides that some or all of the $$$ are wasteful and he is not willing to continue to or can even afford to continue the program
2. He uses the USAID as leverage or tactic a sort of (Terms and Conditions) to get countries to give him what he wants or to achieve certain desired behaviors from them.
(I can see this tactic being used to get Egypt and Jordan to take the Palestinians as an example to continue getting there part of the aid).

Northwest · M

@Avectoijesuismoi

DOGE love it or hate it is simply another name for Auditors/a sort of Business Rescue Plan there function is purely aimed at reducing the Bottomline expenditure, it would be the same if they were going through a Big Corporate Company, they look at it purely as numbers coming in and numbers going out, there is absolutely no viewing for any other angle as to what it will cost humans in suffering etc.

Which is one of the things that Mr Trump was very big on during his campaign how he was going to make the Federal Government leaner and cost the America taxpayer less than it currently does.

Whether you and I agree or not as to whether it should be continued to be funded or not is really quite immaterial there is only one person's opinion that really matters that is Mr Trump, the American people put him there and empowered him to make these type of decisions.

As I understand it Mr Trump has not completely terminated USAID but suspended it for 90 days so that it can be reviewed as to where and how the aid goes to and bottom line how all the money $$$ is being spent.

There are two possibilities
1. He decides that some or all of the $$$ are wasteful and he is not willing to continue to or can even afford to continue the program
2. He uses the USAID as leverage or tactic a sort of (Terms and Conditions) to get countries to give him what he wants or to achieve certain desired behaviors from them.
(I can see this tactic being used to get Egypt and Jordan to take the Palestinians as an example to continue getting there part of the aid).

Did you tell ChaGpt to give you a few hundred word word salad?

Do you actually have a clue what this word salad means? You still don't have a clue and stop pretending you're American. You're not.

Avectoijesuismoi · 31-35

@Northwest Where did I say that I was American

All I said was American people gave Mr Trump the power to make these type of decisions

Northwest · M

@Avectoijesuismoi

All I said was American people gave Mr Trump the power to make these type of decisions

The American people did not give him the power to make these decisions. They made him President, and what he's doing now is illegal.