Maputo — The executive order issued by Donald Trump on 20 January, suspending almost all foreign aid programmes for 90 days, is now in effect in Mozambique.

The order arrived in Maputo last Friday, and the local branch of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) immediately ordered a halt to all the projects it is financing.

Mozambique is heavily dependent on support from the US, particularly for health programmes. According to the independent newssheet "Carta de Mocambique', total investment by USAID in Mozambique is running at over a billion US dollars a year.

Of this sum, 400 million dollars a year is spent on programmes to fight HIV/AIDS. HIV remains one of the main public health threats in Mozambique. The HIV prevalence rate among the adult population is estimated at 11.6 per cent.

In 2022, the US ambassador, Peter Vrooman, claimed "solidarity between the American people and the Mozambican people has allowed us to reduce by almost half the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS. We are financing humanitarian assistance to the displaced people in Cabo Delgado'.

Vrooman pointed out that the US "is the largest donor of vaccines against Covid-19 through the Covax initiative of the international community'.

One of the projects that Trump's executive order puts at risk is Compact Two of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), valued at 537 million dollars, of which 500 million comes from the US government. The project will be implemented in the central province of Zambezia, and includes a new bridge over the Licungo river.

The sole exemptions to the Trump cuts are emergency food aid, and military aid to two regimes that are already armed to the teeth - Israel and Egypt, Even Ukraine, fighting for its life against Russian aggression, does not merit a mention.