Congo humanitarian operations hit hard by Trump aid pause, says UN official

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By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A U.S. pause on foreign aid has had a “major impact” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where humanitarian operations last year were 70% funded by Washington, the top U.N. aid official in the country said on Tuesday.

Bruno Lemarquis said that in 2024 the U.N. humanitarian response plan for DRC received $1.3 billion, of which $910 million came from the United States. He said that since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a pause on foreign aid last month, some programs have had to shut down.

The move came amid a dramatic escalation of a decade-old insurgency in eastern Congo that has fanned fears of a broader regional war and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

“Our ultra dependence on U.S. funding means a lot of programs had to shut down on everything we are doing. So it’s emergency health, it’s emergency shelter,” said Lemarquis, adding that coordination capacity in his own office had to halt.

“This is having major impact. Despite these challenges, we are here to stay and deliver,” he told reporters via video from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. He said that U.N. agencies and international aid groups had been effected.

Lemarquis said that only recently some programs were starting to receive U.S. approval to resume work.

Just hours after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump ordered a 90-day pause so foreign aid contributions could be reviewed to see if they align with his “America First” foreign policy. The U.S. is the world’s largest aid donor.

A lack of detail in the Trump administration’s effort to slash and reshape U.S. foreign aid has created chaos and confusion, say humanitarian officials, who have been left to work out whether to take the financial risk of continuing programs without assurance that they are covered by a waiver.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)