A United Nations agency aiding Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, UNRWA, has censured the United States over its decision to cut funding for the body by more than half.
“The US has announced it will contribute $60 million to the program budget. There is for the moment no other indication of possible funding,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told AFP on Wednesday, a day after Washington made the move.
He called the decision “regrettable” and said it “dramatically reduced contribution results in the most severe funding crisis in the history of the agency.”
Even before the US move, UNRWA, which stands for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, had announced that it had started 2018 with a $174-million budget deficit.
Jordan’s al-Ghad paper reported on Tuesday that UNRWA had laid off more than 100 of its staffers in Jordan due to the US refusal to allow the transfer of financial aid…