By Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle
(Reuters) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that he was deeply concerned about severe cuts in U.S. foreign assistance, in a strong rebuke of the move that he said would be “especially devastating” for the world’s vulnerable people.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration this week said it was drastically cutting foreign aid after pausing assistance in order to conduct a review to ensure projects were aligned with Trump’s “America First” policy.
“Going through with these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe and less prosperous. The reduction of America’s humanitarian role and influence will run counter to American interests globally,” Guterres said in a statement to reporters at the UN.
Guterres said that programs in South Sudan supporting those who have fled the conflict in Sudan have run out of funding, leaving border areas dangerously overcrowded.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will be forced to stop many of its counter-narcotics programs, including one fighting the fentanyl crisis, and dramatically reduce activities against human trafficking, he said.
Funding for programs combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other programs has stopped, he added.
“I can only hope that these decisions can be reversed based on more careful reviews, and the same applies to other countries that have recently announced reductions in humanitarian and development aid,” Guterres said.
In the meantime, Guterres said every UN agency stands ready to provide information and justification for its projects, adding that the UN will do everything it can to provide life-saving aid to those in need.
Britain announced this week it would cut its international aid budget to boost defense spending, drawing warnings from humanitarian charities that the move would damage UK influence and have a devastating impact on those they support.
Trump thrust the international development community into chaos after taking office in January, when he ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid to conduct a sweeping assessment to ensure that all the projects funded with U.S. taxpayer money were aligned with his “America First” policy.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Wednesday said that USAID evaluated 6,200 multi-year awards and had decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54 billion in value, a 92% reduction. The administration also cut nearly 30% of the State Department foreign aid-related grants totaling $4.4 billion.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle, Editing by William Maclean)
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