How did US humanitarian aid to Gaza, Ukraine, and the Horn of Africa compare in 2024?
Executive summary
In 2024 U.S. policy sharply prioritized Ukraine with congressional packages earmarking roughly $61 billion in that supplemental bill while Gaza received aid through a mix of humanitarian channels, emergency USAID programs and new military-assisted logistics like the JLOTS maritime corridor costing about $230 million; broader congressional action bundled $9 billion for humanitarian assistance across multiple crises including Gaza [1][2][3]. Reporting shows the Horn of Africa was addressed in broader UN and donor appeals for 2024 but specific U.S. headline allocations comparable to the Ukraine supplemental are not detailed in the available sources [4][5].
1. Big-ticket politics: Congress made Ukraine the headline winner
Congress passed a four-part foreign aid package in 2024 that included about $61 billion for Ukraine, with much of that for military replenishment and related support, making Ukraine the largest single beneficiary in U.S. legislation cited by mainstream outlets [1][3]. Analytical trackers also show the U.S. has been by far the largest donor to Ukraine since 2022, with cumulative U.S. contributions near $120 billion through 2024 [6]. The scale and public framing of the 2024 supplemental made Ukraine the clear priority in U.S. fiscal policy that year [1][6].
2. Gaza: diffuse support, emergency operations and a costly maritime experiment
U.S. assistance to Gaza in 2024 took multiple forms rather than a single large congressional line-item: part of the $95 billion package was meant to fund humanitarian aid for Gaza and other crises, and the administration directed DoD support for a temporary maritime corridor (JLOTS) to supplement land crossings [1][2]. The JLOTS effort aimed to assist an estimated 500,000 people per month, cost an estimated $230 million to construct, and was completed in mid‑May 2024 — but USAID’s inspector general reported that operational and security constraints limited distribution and diverted focus from opening land crossings [2]. Independent reporting documents parallel U.S.-backed initiatives and controversies over non‑UN aid distribution models in Gaza [7][8].
3. Different instruments, different goals: military logistics versus humanitarian channels
Ukraine funding in 2024 leaned heavily toward military and security assistance, while U.S. activity around Gaza combined humanitarian grants to partners (including UN agencies and NGOs), emergency operational measures (airdrops and JLOTS), and controversial private or U.S.-backed distribution mechanisms that bypassed traditional UN systems — a dynamic flagged by NGOs and media [2][7][8]. The USAID OIG review explicitly notes that DoD and Israeli operational requirements shaped JLOTS planning and constrained humanitarian actors [2].
4. The Horn of Africa: needs high, U.S. allocations not singled out in these sources
The UN’s 2024 humanitarian appeal covered multiple regions and asked for tens of billions for global needs, and reporting flagged major donor flows and declines in aggregate aid in 2024 — but the provided sources do not specify a discrete U.S. 2024 headline package for the Horn of Africa comparable to the Ukraine supplemental or the maritime investment for Gaza [4][5]. Available sources do not mention precise U.S. 2024 dollar totals allocated specifically to the Horn of Africa within the dataset supplied.
5. Comparative takeaways: scale, visibility and instruments matter
Comparing 2024 U.S. support across the three areas: Ukraine received the largest, most visible single congressional commitment (~$61 billion supplemental plus ongoing aid totaling nearly $120 billion since 2022) [1][6]; Gaza saw targeted emergency measures and significant operational spending (e.g., $230 million for JLOTS) alongside humanitarian lines embedded in broader packages and controversial distribution models [2][1][7]; the Horn of Africa appears in UN and donor appeals but is not singled out for a comparable U.S. headline allocation in these sources [4][5]. That pattern reflects U.S. strategic priorities shaped by geopolitics (Ukraine), acute crisis response and logistics constraints (Gaza), and multilateral appeals with less unilateral U.S. visibility (Horn of Africa) in the reporting provided.
6. Limitations, disagreements and what’s missing
These sources document congressional packages, cumulative Ukraine figures and USAID OIG findings on JLOTS, but they do not provide a comprehensive, line-by-line U.S. budget accounting across all humanitarian and development instruments for 2024; nor do they give specific U.S. dollar totals for Horn of Africa assistance in 2024 in the supplied reporting [2][6][4]. Different outlets emphasize different angles — legislative totals and security aid in The Guardian and VOA [1][3], logistical and oversight critique in the USAID OIG report [2], and NGO/field controversy in AP/BBC reporting on Gaza operations [7][8]. Policymakers’ strategic aims and political considerations shaped these allocations and the choice of delivery mechanisms, a reality underscored across these sources [1][2][7].