<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/04/deaths-predicted-amid-the-chaos-of-elon-musks-shutdown-of-usaid>
"Critical supplies of life-saving medicines have been blocked and children left
without food and battling malnutrition as multiple effects were reported across
the globe after Elon Musk resolved to shut down the US government’s pre-eminent
international aid agency.
Chaotic scenes were seen in scores of countries as aid organisations warned of
the risk of escalating disease and famine along with disastrous repercussions
in areas such as family planning and girls’ education, after President Donald
Trump’s decision to freeze funding to USAid. In 2023, the agency managed more
than $40bn (£32bn).
Countless aid organisations have already been forced to close down or lay off
staff.
Analysis confirms that several thousand women and girls are likely to die from
complications during pregnancy and childbirth as a direct result of Trump’s
order to freeze aid to the agency for 90 days.
Trump has tasked the billionaire Musk – who has falsely accused USAid of being
a “criminal” organisation – with scaling down the US government’s lead agency
for humanitarian assistance.
The impact on the global aid sector has been profound and immediate. US foreign
aid accounts for four out of every $10 spent globally on humanitarian aid.
One former senior USAid official described Musk’s crackdown as an
“extinction-level event” for the international humanitarian sector.
The initial repercussions include the abandonment in warehouses of supplies of
crucial drugs in Sudan, the site of what is currently the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
where recent fighting in the east has further destabilised the fragile region.
Across Africa, hundreds of thousands of children who rely on school meals have
been left without sustenance after food was left to rot in the wake of Musk’s
declaration that he wanted the US aid agency to “die”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
