Australian foreign aid workers fear ‘deaths and suffering’ will result from Trump’s halt to USAid

USAid provides about US$68bn in foreign aid a year, totalling more than 40% of global humanitarian funding, which Donald Trump has ordered to be frozen. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/ap

Australian overseas aid programs could shut, causing “unnecessary deaths and suffering”, in the fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to freeze foreign aid.

Workers have described “chaos” and “total panic” as they try to work out what the policy means. The peak body for overseas aid organisations said without intervention the consequences of the move “will be catastrophic”.