By Sheriff Bojang Jnr
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been halted by US President Donald Trump. (Photo:
Trump/Facebook)
US President Donald Trump’s executive order to pause almost all foreign aid for 90 days, coupled with the decision to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is causing confusion and panic across Africa.
Trump’s decision has sent a “huge shock” through those working on the global HIV response, says Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, indicating that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is keeping 20 million people alive on treatment.The world’s largest health programme, launched in 2003 by then-president George W. Bush to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, PEPFAR is one of the programmes affected by Trump’s executive order.
“Cutting it immediately meant that many, many services were disrupted; services to deliver antiretroviral medicines to people, services for prevention, testing and putting people on treatment, caring for orphans, lab work,” Byanyima tells The Africa Report.
In 2023, the African continent received $17.4bn, or a quarter of the entire US aid budget. USAID, primarily responsible for administering most of this foreign aid and development assistance on behalf of the US government, is present in at least 40 countries across Africa.
Most of the money is earmarked for the health and humanitarian sectors, where it provides food, water and access to lifesaving healthcare services, in addition to other areas such as democracy, governance and human rights and education, says Andrew Friedman, former democracy officer at USAID’s Bureau for Africa and senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Human Rights Initiative.
Hiv/Aids Clinics closing in South Africa
South Africa,which has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world, is the biggest recipient of its funds. Now the 5.9 million families relying on the funds for antiretroviral treatment are facing uncertainty.
Multiple clinics and health organisations that serve thousands of HIV/AIDS patients with the help of US funds have shut down, while others announced plans to close due to lack of funds.
Across Africa, people who are affected include community health workers, specialised nurses, counsellors, peer educators, mother mentors, people doing various data entries, pharmacists and doctors, says Byanyima. “It’s a huge network that has been disrupted.”
Looming crisis in Sudan, Nigeria
In Sudan, where the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is raging, aid workers and local NGOs say Trump’s 90-day suspension of US foreign aid and the dismantling of the USAID will have more devastating consequences and cause major disruption to the global response to the crisis.
In 2024, the US was the largest single donor to Sudan, providing more than $803m, or 45%, of funds to the UN Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan. At least $266m was allocated to the World Food Program to respond to Sudan’s famine and hunger emergency.
Though Trump’s executive order provided an exemption for emergency food assistance, Sudanese groups say there is significant confusion over what that means in practice. For some, the suffering due to the aid freeze has already started.
“Community kitchens, a lifeline for thousands, are shutting down across the country due to a lack of funding after USAID stopped its support,” warns Sudanese development advocate Alwaleed Adam. “This is another unbearable layer of hardship for civilians,” he says.
In Nigeria, USAID-funded healthcare facilities and programmes that have been serving vulnerable communities, especially in the restive northern part, are already laying off staff and closing vital programmes funded by Nigeria’s largest bilateral donor.
In 2023, Nigeria ranked eighth in the list of top receivers of US aid globally with $1.01bn. Those funds targeted multiple sectors including humanitarian relief, health interventions, education and economic development.
Economic impact could be significant for Ghana
In Ghana, the abrupt suspension of aid puts at risk key USAID-funded initiatives, including a five-year, $18.8m partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) launched in 2024 and longstanding investments exceeding $300m in health programmes since 2018.
“This decision couldn’t have come at a worse time,” says Abdulai Abukari, Northern
Regional Director of Health Services. “Our hospitals and clinics depend heavily on USAID-funded procurement and distribution services. Without these resources, we risk medicine shortages, increased maternal mortality and setbacks in malaria control,” he tells The Africa Report.
The freeze also threatens Ghana’s fight against HIV/AIDS. Ernest Amoabeng Ortsin, the president of the Ghana HIV & AIDS Network (GHANET), warns that more than 151,000
Ghanaians living with HIV/AIDS could be left without essential antiretroviral medication.
“The situation is dire – this freeze puts thousands of lives at risk,” says Ortsin.
“Many depend on USAID support for life-saving treatment. If these funds don’t resume, we could see a spike in HIV-related deaths and new infections.”
Beyond healthcare, Ghana’s agriculture sector faces a looming disaster. Millions of smallholder farmers benefiting from USAID’s “Feed the Future” programme now stand to lose essential funding, potentially leading to lower productivity and food insecurity.
With agriculture contributing about 20% of Ghana’s GDP, experts fear the economic impact could be significant.
Disruption in Liberia
In Liberia, where USAID actively engaged in several vital programmes that assisted the government in meeting the needs of its people, Senator Amara Konneh raises concern about the possibility of “disruptions in hospital supplies, interruptions to school feeding programmes, insufficient support for essential services and farmers in the coming 90 days”.
Historically, Liberia has relied on US aid for governance and security, says Aaron Weah, director of the Monrovia-based Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research, adding that this dependency increased in post-war Liberia.
“The scale of this disruption can only be compared to the impact that Ebola had on Liberia’s economy,” Weah tells The Africa Report.
In 2024, the US and Liberia formalised the Amendments to the Development Objective Agreement – initially established in May 2020 as the official vehicle for channelling US assistance to Liberia through USAID. This agreement, according to Konneh, entails an additional US investment of around $114.4m, which accounts for approximately 14% of Liberia’s national budget.
Layoffs in Kenya
The US aid freeze will also disrupt critical programmes in various sectors in Kenya where USAID has been a lifeline. Many of those programmes are crumbling, Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda posted on X on Friday.
“Imagine waking up to a world where the help you’ve come to rely on is suddenly pulled away. NGOs, health clinics and local businesses that depended on that funding are shrinking,” he wrote.
The fear of mass layoffs is also looming large in Kenya due to the aid freeze and closure of USAID activities.
“People who woke up with a job yesterday are now wondering how they’ll pay rent tomorrow to keep their head afloat while awake. Families that had begun to see hope in the face of a brighter future now wallow in uncertainty, helplessness and despair,” said Ojienda.
Reversal of democratic gains
Across the continent, USAID has played a pivotal role in improving and deepening democracy by funding civil society organisations and programmes meant to fight corruption, consolidate good governance and promote human rights.
“If these local civil society organisations can no longer operate, an important protection, possibly the most important protection, against authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, suffers,” says Friedman.
The US has been providing financial resources to the Gambia‘s transitional justice programme since 2021, and technical assistance towards the establishment of the special tribunal as well as the special prosecutor’s office to try former president Yahya Jammeh and his cohorts has now halted due to Trump’s aid freeze.
The effort by the administration of Liberian President Joseph Boakai to establish a War and Economic Crimes Court was based on the assumption that USAID would provide the foundational resources to start the process. Now that also lies in tatters.
Additional reporting by Kent Mensah in Accra.
Source Africa Report
