The global humanitarian community is in turmoil following US President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign assistance, a move that has abruptly halted critical health and security programs, leaving millions vulnerable across Africa, Haiti, and beyond.

Aid staff in ‘panic mode’

Nowhere is the impact more stark than in Africa, where USAID’s 90-day suspension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has thrown HIV treatment programs into disarray. The initiative, which supports over 20 million HIV patients and funds 270,000 health workers, has been forced to stop life-saving treatments.

According to an analysis by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the suspension will likely result in 135,987 babies acquiring HIV due to the sudden disruption in services for pregnant women living with the virus.

Frontline workers report that clinics have already shut down, and research projects have been abandoned midstream. Aghan Daniel, head of a USAID-funded Kenyan health journalism team, confirmed that programs testing experimental HIV drugs like lenacapavir have ceased, leaving study participants at serious risk.

“The people who were the study candidates are going to have adverse health results because the study has just stopped all of a sudden,” Daniel said, noting that his own team of six science journalists had lost their jobs. “A lot of people are going to die because of lack of knowledge.”

‘Life and death’ situation

The consequences extend beyond HIV programs. A Kenyan USAID staffer described the freeze as a “bombshell” that has left workers in a state of “panic.”

“We will have more people succumbing to diseases like tuberculosis and cholera,” the staffer warned. Some organizations have already been forced to place employees on unpaid leave, while others are unable to pay rent or maintain operations.

At a USAID office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, AFP reporters witnessed workers clearing out their desks. The uncertainty surrounding what constitutes “life-saving” aid—especially in nutrition and vaccination programs—has compounded the crisis.

“Stopping some of these programs even for a few days could make the difference between life and death,” said an aid worker from an NGO working in conflict zones.

Haiti’s security force loses key funding

Trump’s aid freeze is also hitting security efforts in Haiti, where Washington has suspended $13.3 million in pledged contributions to the United Nations fund supporting a multinational security mission.

The force, led by Kenya and backed by the UN, was meant to help Haiti’s government combat powerful criminal gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that without urgent financial support, the country’s security institutions could collapse entirely.

Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste echoed these concerns, describing the funding halt as a blow to both the nation’s stability and the survival of the state itself.