One of Europe's largest humanitarian organisations announced Tuesday that it would have to suspend "lifesaving" US-funded aid in 21 countries this week.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said in a statement that the crisis was triggered by the US government's "continued failure to issue outstanding payments for completed and ongoing authorised work".
Since returning to the White House last month, US President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of foreign assistance and called for the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes US humanitarian aid globally.
On February 10, the NRC said it would have to suspend US-funded programmes by the end of the month unless funds were released for outstanding payment requests.
The organisation said it had $20 million in outstanding requests to the United States, which had already been spent on "21 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously announced waivers for lifesaving humanitarian programmes, but NRC said "neither funding nor communication on when money will be transferred has since been received".
The NRC said the funding situation had "created a liquidity crisis" that the organisation "can no longer absorb", and that it would have to lay off aid workers.
Suspended projects include 700 bakeries providing daily bread to people "on the brink of starvation" in Sudan, water and sanitation support in Sudan and the DRC, and emergency shelter and support for cyclone-affected families in Mozambique.
The organisation said it would suspend these programmes on February 28, and called on the US government to release outstanding payments and "lift all stop work orders to best ensure lifesaving assistance is able to continue".
Although Norway announced multi-year funding agreements with six NGOs including the NRC last week, the funds will not be able to replace the frozen US amounts.
In 2024, US-funded programmes run by the NRC reached 1.6 million people, and just under 20 percent of the organisation's funds came from the United States.
Source: AFP