The decision comes a day after a trade court blocked the majority of Trump tariffs because it circumvented Congress.
In the overcrowded Musenyi camp, Claude now faces a different struggle as food rations dwindle.Hunger has fuelled new tensions within the camp, prompting Claude to join volunteers who patrol the area to prevent theft of what supplies remain.
“When I arrived here, I was given 3.5kg [7.7lb] of rice per month. Now it’s a kilo [2.2lb]. The 3kg [6.6lb] of peas have dropped to 1.8kg [4lb]. What I get in tomato sauce lasts one day. Then it’s over,” said Claude, whose name has been changed for security reasons, as have the names of other refugees interviewed.Some of the most desperate resort to slashing neighbours’ tents in search of food, he added, while gangs “spread terror”.“The reduction of assistance will lead to many crimes,” he warned.
Oscar Niyibizi, the camp’s deputy administrator, described the cut in food rations as a “major challenge” that could “cause security disruption”.He urges refugees to cultivate land nearby but said external support remains desperately needed.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump slashed its aid budget by 80 percent, and other Western nations have also reduced donations. As a result, many NGOs and United Nations agencies have been forced to close or significantly scale back their programmes.
These cutbacks have come at a “very bad time” as fighting escalates in the DRC, according to Geoffrey Kirenga, head of mission for Save the Children in Burundi.Her husband Hamdy, 40, also a doctor, and their son Adam, 11, are in the ICU, their lives hanging by a thread inside Gaza’s disintegrating health system – not by chance but by design. The repeated, intentional targeting of hospitals and clinics has left Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure in ruins. In just one week, 12 of Gaza’s most dedicated nurses were killed, one by one.
Commenting on the family’s condition, Dr Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in Nasser Hospital who operated on them, said the father had suffered a “penetrating injury to his head”, while “Adam’s left arm was just about hanging off; he was covered in fragment injuries and had several substantial lacerations.”Her daughter Revan’s body was burned beyond recognition – “nothing remained of her skin or flesh,” her uncle said. In tears, Dr Alaa begged rescuers to let her hold her daughter one last time.
Sadly, the white shrouds wrapped around the bodies of Gaza’s children continue to mount.Yaqeen Hammad is now one of those shrouded and buried children.