USAID will continue to provide its food and nutrition supply programme for Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh, said the press wing of Chief Adviser in its briefing today, Sunday.
The USAID, the US government’s cooperation agency, in a directive on Saturday, asked all USAID/Bangladesh implementing partners to immediately ‘stop, cease, and/or suspend any work’ performed under their respective USAID/Bangladesh contract, task order, grant, cooperative agreement, or other acquisition or assistance instrument.
However, the food supply for Rohingyas will remain out of the purview of this directive.
Chief Adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam and deputy press secretary Apurba Jahangir spoke at today’s briefing at Foreign Service Academy. Later the press wing issued a statement in the end.
Apurba Jahangir said the USAID’s all projects across the world have been suspended for 90 days after Donald Trump assumed office.
The press wing said that Chief Adviser Professor Yunus has thanked Donald Trump for keeping the nutrition and resources projects for Rohingyas beyond the purview of the order. Chief Adviser’s high representative Khalilur Rahman also thanked the US administration while a delegation of the US embassy met him.
Asked about the fallout of the directives, press secretary Shafiqul Alam said USAID’s assistance mainly comes for Rohingyas. The US has provided more than USD 2 billion for Rohingyas in the last seven years. The government hopes this assistance will continue in the coming days.
He also maintained that the directive will not affect Bangladesh that much.
prothom alo
