Usaid Short hits people ‘shouting for hunger’

The freezing of American humanitarian assistance has forced the closure of almost 80% of the established emergency food kitchens to help people out of the Civil War of Sudan, as the BBC has learned.

Aid volunteers said the impact of President Donald Trump’s executive order stopped the contributions of the United States Government Development Organization (USAID) for 90 days meant that more than 1,100 communal kitchens had closed.

It is estimated that almost two million people fighting to survive have been affected.

The conflict between the army and the paramilitary fast support forces has killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions of their homes and left many facing the famine since it broke out in April 2023.

The kitchens are directed by groups known as emergency response rooms, a network of base activists who stayed in the first line to respond to crises in their neighborhoods.

“People are calling the doors of the volunteers,” says Duaa Tariq, one of the organizers of the emergency room. “People shout from hunger in the streets.”

The Trump administration abruptly suspended all American aid last month to determine if it was “serving the interests of the United States” and moved to start dismantling USAID.

The State Department has issued an exemption for emergency food assistance, but Sudanese groups and others say that there is significant confusion and uncertainty about what that means in practice.

Normal channels to process an exemption through USAID no longer exist, and it is not clear if cash assistance depends, in which communal kitchens depend, will be restored, or only goods in kind. According to some estimates, USAID provided 70-80% of the total financing of these flexible cash programs.

The closure of the majority of the emergency kitchens of Sudan is seen as a significant setback by the organizations that work to address the largest hunger crisis in the world, with hungry conditions reported in at least five locations.

The community of communal food centers was based on the early stages of the country’s civil war against community and diaspora donations, but then became a focal point for the financing of international agencies fighting to access the conflict zones, including USAID.

It is a “great setback,” says Andrea Tracy, a former USAID official who established a background, the mutual help of Sudan, for private donations to emergency rooms.

The former USAID chief Samantha Power had adopted the idea of ​​working with local groups instead of trusting only traditional channels such as the UN.

The money had begun to flow through international aid organizations obtained from US subsidies, but a channel for direct funds was in process.

“It was innovative,” says Tracy. “The only time Usaid had done this was with the white helmets (humanitarian group) in Syria.”

For Mrs. Tariq, the cut in the Funds of the United States. Uu. It made it impossible to buy shares for the more than 25 kitchens in the six neighborhoods of the capital, Jartum, she helps to serve. She told the BBC that she left them without preparation for a worsening of the situation when the army advanced in the area, which has been retained by the RSF since the conflict broke out.

There was a widespread looting of the markets when the RSF began to retire and the army hardened its siege.

Most kitchens have closed, he said. Some are trying to get food on credit from local fishermen and farmers, but very soon “we hope to see many hunger people.”

Here and in the rest of the country, the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition Fund of Mrs. Tracy will do what you can to connect the gap that Usaid left.

“I think we can underpin (emergency kitchens),” he said, “but the reality is that (private donations) will have to do even more now, because even if humanitarian assistance resumes, it will never be what it was.”

“These volunteers challenged us to work differently, and we were responding,” says a member of a former USAID associated organization.

They are “exhausted, traumatized and sub -financed” and “we were expanding to help them.”

The State Department did not answer specific questions about exemptions for Sudan, saying that the information was shared directly with groups whose applications were successful.

“The help review process is not about ending foreign aid, but restructuring assistance to ensure that the United States is safer, stronger and more prosperous,” he said in response to a BBC consultation .

The World Food Program (WFP) says it has received exemptions for its 13 existing Sudanese subsidies with USAID, but there is no certainty about what comes next for future funds. Anyway, that would have been in negotiation: now the conversations will take place in changed circumstances.

In 2024, the United States was the largest individual donor in Sudan, both in direct donations and in contributions to the UN Humanitarian Response Plan.

The High UN officials told the BBC that the impact of Washington’s policy change would feel beyond the Sudan borders, with more than two million civilians now refugees in neighboring countries.

“I witnessed people who have fled from conflict but not hungry,” said Rania Dagesh, WFP Assistant Executive Director, for associations and innovation, after visiting camps in Renk and Malakal, South Sudan, at the beginning of this month.

The influx of refugees has only tensioned more available resources.

“We have to rationalize, rationalize, rationalize,” says Mamadou Dian Balde, the director of the UN Regional Office for refugees.

He had also been to visit refugee camps in Chad and Egypt when he spoke with the BBC. “We are tensioned. It is extremely difficult.”

Both accredit local communities for welcoming those who seek refuge and share with them the little available. In the case of South Sudan, “it is a million additional people who have come to a country where 60% of the population is in emergency hunger,” says Mrs. Dagesh.

Most families are now at a meal a day, with children and the elderly priority.

“But you see them wear and lose weight in front of you, malnourished children. You see mothers who try to breastfeed, and there is nothing coming out of their chest,” he said.

Most refugees are women, children and some older people.

They say that most body without body were killed or simply disappeared. Then, they fled to save themselves and the children. They have nothing.

In front of hunger in the camps, some in South Sudan have tried to sell firewood. But Mrs. Dagesh says that she exposes them to harassment, violence and rape.

Many of the refugees they knew had come from the agricultural areas of Sudan. The war interrupted their lives and life.

They would like to see the restored peace so they can return home, but the fight has been furious for almost two years without an end in view.

With the situation of deteriorated hunger within Sudan in the absence of a high fire, the closure of the kitchens that provide emergency meals will only increase the numbers that flee through the borders.

However, the help agencies they would normally help are tense.

UNHCR says that it has been forced to rationalize “at levels where our interventions are absolutely limited: they are at least.”

It does not help the agency to be sub -financed.

UNHCR call to donor contributions last year threw only 30% of the anticipated amount, which forced its teams to cut “everything”, including the number of foods and the number of water refugees they could receive .

The United States has been the main financing of the UNHCR and the announcement last month of freezing aid and subsequent exemption seemed to have thrown things into limbo.

“We are still evaluating, working with partners, to see to what extent this is affecting our needs,” BBC told the BBC.

Faced with impossible elections, some refugees are already resorting to refuge in third countries, even in the Gulf, Europe and beyond. Some embark on “very dangerous trips,” says Balde.