UNITED NATIONS >> The U.S. has notified the United Nations that it is freezing funding to a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of the country’s capital, the U.N. said Tuesday.

The U.S. has been the biggest contributor to the mission led by Kenyan police, which was launched last year and is struggling with a lack of funding and personnel. The halt will have an “immediate impact” on the mission, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump imposes a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance, leading to thousands of U.S. aid agency employees and contractors being laid off and programs worldwide shut down.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has offered a waiver for life-saving programs, but confusion over what is exempt from stop-work orders — and fear of losing U.S. aid permanently — is still freezing aid and development work globally.

The United States had committed $15 million to the trust fund that helps finance the multinational force in Haiti, Dujarric said. With $1.7 million of that already spent, “$13.3 million is now frozen,” the spokesman said.

“We will await further guidance from the US regarding its contribution,” he said.

The fund, which now has less than $100 million of the estimated $600 million required annually for the multinational force is not the only support for the mission. There are also bilateral and other types of contributions that the U.N. does not track.

The halt in funding appeared to take officials leading the Kenyan mission by surprise. When asked for comment, mission spokesman Jack Mbaka declined to give any immediate reaction.

The mission works alongside Haiti’s National Police, which is severely underfunded and understaffed and has received millions of dollars from the U.S. government in recent years to help fight gangs. Currently, there are only about 4,000 Haitian police officers on duty at a time in a country of more than 11 million people.

The announcement was made just hours after a military contingent of 70 soldiers from El Salvador arrived in Haiti, joining more than 600 Kenyan police officers already on the ground backed by police and soldiers from other countries including Jamaica and Guatemala.

It’s unclear what impact the halt in U.S. funding for the mission might have on efforts to transform it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Gangs already control 85% of the capital, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres recently warned they could overrun Port-au-Prince without additional support for the multinational force.