Aid agency NRC halts work in ‘nearly 20 countries’ over US aid freeze

The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the world’s biggest aid agencies, on Monday announced that it was “forced” to suspend its humanitarian activities in almost 20 countries due to the US aid freeze under President Donald Trump.

The NRC said in a statement that “for the first time in our history, (we) will have to suspend ongoing and urgent humanitarian work for hundreds of thousands of people in nearly 20 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement”.

“These dramatic measures come in response to the stop, partial suspension, or lack of reimbursement of United States funding for our global humanitarian operations.”

The NRC said that it had “assisted 1.6 million people through US-supported programmes” in 2024.

Just under 20 percent or $150 million of its funding came from the United States last year, it added.

The NRC said that already it has had to halt the scheduled delivery of “emergency support to 57,000 people in communities along the frontlines” in Ukraine.

It said it was being “forced to lay off aid workers around the world”, including in Afghanistan, and would soon have “to halt US-funded lifesaving humanitarian programmes” in Burkina Faso and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The NRC said that it had “millions of dollars in outstanding payment requests to the US government” and that if those funds were not delivered, then “hundreds of thousands of people” would be “left without vital assistance previously supported by US humanitarian funding”.

Since returning to the White House last month, Trump has ordered the suspension of foreign assistance and called for the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes US humanitarian aid globally.