Confusion, fear as PEPFAR partners suspend HIV services

Andrew Kambugu, the head of the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala, Uganda, received an email from the U.S. Agency for International Development on Sunday, Jan. 26, instructing him to halt any work his organization was doing that was funded through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

This followed a U.S. State Department memo issued late last week ordering nearly all organizations that depend on U.S. funding to stop work. The memo elaborated on U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order pausing foreign development assistance for 90 days.

Kambugu said the message “was very clear that we should stop work. The resources that are coming to us are through agreements that are legally enforceable. We need to and have taken steps to comply.”