GENEVA: The UN children’s agency UNICEF said Friday that it was studying the impact of drastic US aid cuts, with millions of children already affected by the funding freeze imposed last month.
US President Donald Trump, on his first day back in office last month, demanded a 90-day freeze on all US foreign aid to give his administration time to review overseas spending, with an eye to gutting programs not aligned with his “America First” agenda.
The State Department announced Wednesday that multi-year aid contracts were being slashed by 92 percent, in a bid to make around $60 billion in savings in development and overseas humanitarian programs.
“We have received termination notices for UNICEF grants, and they include humanitarian as well as development programming,” the agency’s spokesman James Elder said at a press conference in Geneva.
“We continue to assess the impact of those termination notices on our programs for children. But we already know that the initial pause has impacted programming for millions of children in roughly half the countries that we work.
“Without urgent action, without funding, more children are going to suffer malnutrition. Fewer will have access to education, and preventable illnesses will claim more lives,” he said.
“So it’s very clear that reduction in any funding during these exceedingly difficult times for children is putting child lives at risk at a time when they need support more than ever.”
The United States has, until now, been by far the world’s largest donor of humanitarian and development aid.
Geetanjali Narayan, UNICEF’s representative in Haiti, told the briefing that US aid was crucial to children’s lives in the poorest country in the Caribbean.
“The current situation is having a devastating impact on thousands of children at the moment in Haiti. We are seeing services are being cut, reduced,” she said.
“The impact in Haiti — in a country that is so stricken by conflict, violence and poverty — is extreme and it’s immediate: it is happening now.”
Narayan visited a primary health care center in northern Haiti in late January where nurses were weighing babies and screening for malnutrition, with the support of US aid via UNICEF.
“These activities will no longer be able to continue,” she said.
The agency’s partners and civil society organizations in the country have also been heavily affected, Narayan said.
Meanwhile the UN’s World Food Programme had more positive news, saying that two weeks ago, the freeze on in-kind food assistance to WFP, purchased from US farmers, was rescinded.
“We’ve been able to resume our regular operations under all the existing USAID grants that we have,” WFP Sudan spokeswoman Leni Kinzli told the briefing via video from Nairobi.
UN says millions of children already affected by US aid halt
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UN says millions of children already affected by US aid halt
- “We have received termination notices for UNICEF grants, and they include humanitarian as well as development programming,” the agency’s spokesman James Elder said
- “We continue to assess the impact of those termination notices on our programs for children”
Thailand-Cambodia fighting rages on as Trump signals intent to intervene
- Clashes raged at more than a dozen locations along their 817-km border
- “I hate to say this one, named Cambodia-Thailand, and it started up today, and tomorrow I am going to have to make a phone call,” Trump said
BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH: Thailand and Cambodia traded accusations of targeting civilians in artillery and rocket attacks on Wednesday, as US President Donald Trump said he would try to intervene to stop the fighting and salvage a ceasefire he brokered earlier this year.
Clashes raged at more than a dozen locations along their 817-km (508-mile) border in some of the most intense fighting since a five-day battle in July, which Trump stopped with calls to both leaders to halt their worst conflict in recent history.
The Southeast Asian neighbors have blamed each other for the clashes that started on Monday.
’IT CANNOT BE AS SIMPLE AS PICKING UP THE PHONE’
Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania late on Tuesday said he would try to stop the renewed hostilities, after enumerating the conflicts he said he had helped stop, such as those between Pakistan and India, and Israel and Iran.
“I hate to say this one, named Cambodia-Thailand, and it started up today, and tomorrow I am going to have to make a phone call,” he said.
“Who else could say, ‘I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia?’“
Thailand’s army has made clear it wants to cripple Cambodia’s military capabilities and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday said operations would not stop.
He declined to comment on Wednesday on what the military’s end-game was. Asked about Trump’s remarks, he said the conflict was a matter between the two countries involved.
“Other national leaders may have good intentions in wanting peace,” Anutin told reporters. “It cannot be as simple as picking up the phone and calling. There must be proper appointment and agreed talking points. We still have time to prepare these issues if such discussions are to take place.”
Cambodian government spokesperson Pen Bona said Phnom Penh’s position was that it wanted only peace and had acted in self-defense. A top adviser to Cambodia’s prime minister has signalled the country was ready to negotiate.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who helped Trump broker the ceasefire, said he had spoken with leaders of Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday and, though no definitive resolution was reached, he appreciated “the openness and willingness of both leaders to continue negotiations in order to ease tensions.”
ROCKETS, JETS AND DRONE-BOMBS
Thailand’s army said fighting took place on 16 different fronts on Wednesday, including both ends of the border. It reported an onslaught of BM-21 rockets fired by Cambodian forces, some of which it said landed near a hospital in Surin province, forcing the evacuation of patients and staff.
The army said Cambodian drones were being used to drop bombs and BM-21 rockets, and tanks were used at other border areas, including near the contested 11th Century Preah Vihear temple, a flashpoint for previous diplomatic and military conflicts.
Cambodia’s military said Thailand used artillery fire and armed drones and fired mortars into homes, while F-16 fighter jets had entered Cambodian airspace on multiple occasions, some dropping bombs near civilian areas.
“Cambodian forces have been fighting fiercely against the advancing enemy and have stood firm in their role of protecting Cambodia’s territorial integrity,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
In July, Trump used the leverage of trade negotiations to broker a ceasefire. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow on Tuesday told Reuters that tariff threats should not be used to pressure his country into talks.
Last month, Thailand suspended de-escalation measures, agreed at an October summit in Trump’s presence, after a Thai soldier was maimed by a land mine that Bangkok said was newly laid by Cambodia, which rejects the accusation.
HEAVY TOLL ON CIVILIANS
The three days of clashes have taken a heavy toll on civilians, with nine people killed in Cambodia, including an infant, and 46 people wounded, according to its government. Five Thai soldiers had been killed in the fighting and 68 people were wounded, the Thai army said.
On Wednesday, Cambodia withdrew its athletes from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, citing safety reasons and their families’ concern.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from border areas, though some people have chosen not to leave.
“I have to stay behind,” said Wuttikrai Chimngarm, as he hunkered down behind a makeshift bunker of tires stacked six high while shelling shook Thailand’s border province of Buriram.
“I’m the head of the village, if not me, then who? Who will be safeguarding the houses and belongings of the villagers from looters?“
As soon as Monday’s fighting erupted, residents fled the disputed village of Kaun Kriel, about 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Cambodia’s city of Samraong.
“This is my second run because the place I live ... was under attack both times,” said Cambodian Marng Sarun, a 31-year-old harvester, who left with his wife and two children.
