THE SPRAWLING al-Hol camp in north-eastern Syria is part of a network of prisons holding tens of thousands of detainees and family members from Islamic State’s jihadist “caliphate”, which was smashed by America and its allies in 2019. Western securocrats have long worried that prisoners might break out and wreak bloody havoc, in Syria and abroad. Such fears have intensified given the turmoil after the fall of Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in December.

There could scarcely be a worse time for the Trump administration to order, as it did on January 24th, an immediate halt to almost all aid work—at al-Hol and around the world—pending a 90-day review to ensure foreign assistance aligns with America First principles. The only exceptions were aid for Israel and Egypt (mostly military) and “emergency food aid”.  Waivers could subsequently be issued on a case by case basis.

America is by far the world’s largest aid donor, spending $68bn in fiscal 2023, the most recent year. The US accounts for about 40% of all humanitarian assistance provided by governments. The announcement of an abrupt cutoff of much of this money hit humanitarian agencies like an earthquake. American-funded projects wobbled and some risked collapse.

The affected work included the distribution of antiretroviral drugs for people infected with HIV under a scheme known as PEPFAR, credited with saving some 26m lives since 2003; medical services for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh; mine-clearing in South-East Asia; reconstruction of bombed-out energy infrastructure in Ukraine; pro-democracy work in Russia’s near-abroad; and much more.

“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” the state department said.

Among the casualties were groups working at al-Hol, home to about 40,000 Islamic State (IS) fighters and their relatives, among them European women who married combatants and bore their children. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls north-eastern Syria, is in charge of security at the camps. But aid workers speak of a free-for-all within. Women loyal to IS hold sway with guns and train a new generation of ideologues. The perimeter is pierced by tunnels, allowing weapons in and inmates out. Killings are commonplace. Children are sold as fighters. “It’s more an IS base than a prison,” says a Western researcher.

Blumont, the American firm that manages al-Hol (and a smaller camp called Roj) under a state department contract, says its teams left the camps when they received the stop-work order, and arranged for other groups to provide “very much reduced basic services”. Some humanitarian groups said they were issuing termination letters for their staff. On January 27th Blumont received a 14-day waiver and said its staff returned the next day.

Amid chaos and an outcry that countless lives were at risk, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, later widened exemptions to include “life-saving humanitarian assistance”. This includes “medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs.” Programs would not be funded if they involved abortion, family-planning, transgender surgeries or other aid deemed not to be life-saving.

Even with this concession, aid groups say confusion abounds. “Does work on clean water count as life-saving aid?” asked an official in one large ngo. Some projects were being closed because of the uncertainty. The status of PEPFAR is unclear.

Waivers apparently still need to be issued case-by-case. Whether the government has the staff to process them quickly is another question. Few of the state department’s political appointees have yet arrived. USAID, the main American development agency, has furloughed hundreds of senior staff and contractors. One spoke of a “sad and apocalyptic” atmosphere.

The state department says the full halt was necessary because “it is impossible to evaluate programs on autopilot”, arguing that those running them have little incentive to give details if the money keeps flowing. It claims to have already saved about $1bn, halting things such as the delivery of condoms to Gaza, sex education globally and clean-energy programmes for women in Fiji. The department offered no details to support its $1bn estimate.

Al-Hol offers just one example of how stopping work suddenly for such dubious reasons is an avoidable act of self-harm. “Without aid, it’s difficult to maintain the security of the camps,” says Ali Rahmoun, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the SDF. “The jihadists won’t just be a problem for Syria but for the region and even Europe.”

Americans would be in danger, too. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US army veteran, rammed his Ford pickup into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 14. He was killed by police. In his vehicle they found IS’s black flag. ■

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