US halts almost all aid programs except those for Israel and Egypt

Right after assuming office, the new US administration froze virtually all foreign aid, making exceptions only for emergency food and military funding for Israel and Egypt. 

New Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, shared an internal memo of the latest policy that tightly restricts overseas assistance. 

“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” revealed an internal memo, as reported by the France-based news agency AFP.

The sweeping policy is expected to affect Ukraine, which had been receiving billions of dollars in weapons under President Joe Biden to combat the Russian invasion.

The order also impacts US medical aid to developing countries, including those in Africa. Under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the US has been providing anti-retroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS.

The initiative was launched under President George W Bush's administration in 2003. 

However, the latest memo does not stop the military assistance to Israel, whose long-standing major arms packages from the US further expanded since IDF’s military offensive in Gaza began in 2024.

Egypt, on the other hand, has been receiving US defence funding since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. 

The anti-poverty group Oxfam criticised the Trump-led administration's action, stating it was a long-standing consensus in United States foreign assistance. 

“Humanitarian and development assistance accounts for only around one percent of the federal budget; it saves lives, fights diseases, educates millions of children and reduces poverty,” Oxfam America president Abby Maxman said in a statement.

“Suspending and ultimately cutting many of these programmes could have life or death consequences for countless children and families who are living through the crisis,” she told AFP.