Trump administration changes have upended the US agency charged with providing humanitarian aid to countries overseas. Dozens of senior officials have been put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and a sweeping freeze imposed on billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
Aid organisations say the funding freeze — and deep confusion over what US-funded programmes must stop working as a result — has left them agonising over whether they could continue operating programmes such as those providing round-the-clock nutritional support to extremely malnourished infants and children, knowing that closing the doors means that many of those children would die.
Three days later, at least 56 senior career USAID staffers were abruptly placed on administrative leave. Three officials said many of those put on leave were lawyers involved in determining what programmes might qualify for waivers, helping write proposals and submitting those waiver requests as they believed they had been invited to do.
A Trump administration directive that aid organisations interpret as a gag order has left them unwilling to speak publicly for fear of permanently losing US funding. Others were identified as having been involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programming, which the administration has banned.
We have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions. On Thursday, a USAID human resources official who tried to reverse the action, saying there was no justification for it, was himself placed on leave, according to two of the officials who had viewed internal emails and verified them as authentic.
