UN aid agencies cut back operations after Trump’s 90-day funding suspension

UNHCR chief orders clampdown on spending, including 90-day delay in ordering new supplies and hiring freeze

An Ethiopian Tigray migrant, makes a phone call to her mother in Ethiopia, as she takes shelter under trees at the last stop of her journey before leaving by boat to Yemen in the evening, in Obock, Djibouti. PictureL AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, FILE

UN agencies have begun cutting back their global aid operations following the 90-day suspension of all foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration.

Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, responsible for providing life-saving assistance to the 122 million people forcibly displaced from their homes across 136 countries, sent out an overnight email to employees ordering an immediate clampdown on expenditure, including a 90-day delay in ordering new supplies except for emergencies, a hiring and contract freeze, and a halt to all international air travel, as the agency tries to adapt to the US funding freeze.