US Funding For Afghanistan Suspended
The United States has suspended educational, charitable and human rights programmes in Afghanistan.
The United States has suspended educational, charitable and human rights programmes in Afghanistan.
These programmes have been halted following US President Donald Trump's order to suspend US foreign aid.
In a letter, a copy of which was obtained by Afghanistan International, a journalists' advocacy organisation informed its colleagues that a planned meeting with Afghan journalists has been postponed indefinitely due to the suspension of US foreign aid.
The letter cited the US State Department's order to suspend foreign aid funding as the reason for the cancellation of the meeting.
The announcement said that the new date of the meeting will be announced after receiving new information.
Shahrzad Akbar, the former head of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, also wrote on social media platform X that employees of charitable, human rights and media organisations have been harmed as a result of the suspension related to US financial aid.
The US State Department also recently suspended funding for organisations that help with housing, employment, and other refugee needs.
This action will also affect tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in the United States.
Tariq Noorzada, a former counselor at the Afghan embassy in Turkmenistan, wrote on his Facebook page that President Trump signed an executive order on January 24, 2025, suspending all services provided to refugees in the first 90 days of their arrival in the United States.
According to Noorzada, these services include paying rent, going through legal documents, finding a job, receiving government assistance, and dozens of other items that were provided by the resettlement offices.
Noorzada said that as a result of the signing of this executive order, the provision of services to tens of thousands of migrants who were receiving these services has been stopped.
Shahrzad Akbar also wrote, "Our compatriots who have just immigrated to the United States are now worried about their future." It is not clear when these programmes will resume.
Earlier, the US State Department announced that all foreign aid projects would be suspended, except for emergency food programmes and military aid to Israel and Egypt.
The decision was made to review the compatibility of these programmes with Donald Trump's policies, and the review could take up to 85 days.
More than three years after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the United States remains the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the country.
According to a SIGAR report released last October, the United States has allocated a total of $21.6 billion over the past three years to help Afghanistan and Afghan refugees.
According to SIGAR, $3.33 billion of this money has been sent to Afghanistan under the guise of humanitarian and development aid.
Critics of the Taliban say that the group is using US cash aid to bolster its government.
In one case, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction also acknowledged that the Taliban may have benefited from US financial assistance to Afghanistan.
