Africa has received billions of dollars in aid in the United States. That's what it will lose.
The United States has cut almost all its spending on aid. The biggest loser will be Africa.
Over the years, sub-Saharan Africa received more U.S. aid funds than any other region – except in 2022 and 2023, when the United States received Ukraine's aid after the Russian invasion.
In 2024, US$12.7 billion in foreign aid from the United States went directly to sub-Saharan Africa, with more global programs (including Health and Climate Initiatives) being the main beneficiaries of Africa.
In fact, all this aid will disappear after President Trump’s decision to remove the U.S. International Development Agency. These cuts are expected to eliminate decades of saving lives, lifting people out of poverty, combat terrorism and promoting human rights in Africa, the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world.
Trump officials accused the agency of wasting and fraud. In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Trump expressed opposition to Africa's aid, saying the United States spent millions of dollars to promote the LGBTQ issue, “No one has ever heard of it in Lesotho, Africa.”
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department must pay up to $2 billion to the work done, but the ruling has little impact on eliminating most U.S. foreign aid.
The New York Times’ inspection of government spending data found that most aid is used for humanitarian, health and disaster assistance. In many African countries, it is difficult to accurately track the consequences of these tragedies, as one focus is on the main program to collect global health data.
The survey shows that Americans disagree on whether foreign aid is valuable or effective. But scholars, former Liberian minister W. Gyude Moore, said the way the demolition was “almost cruel.”
Seven of the eight countries most vulnerable to USDA cuts are in Africa (the other is Afghanistan). This is a breakdown of the losses the United States suffered when it contributes its contribution to aid globally.
Humanitarian relief during conflict
From warring factions in Sudan to armed groups sweeping across eastern Congo, and a wave of extremist violent violence, Africa is struggling with several humanitarian crises marked by extreme hunger and violence.
Last year, the United States spent $4.9 billion to help people escape such conflicts or survive natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis said the largest U.S. humanitarian plan in 2024 is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which spent $910 million on food, water, sanitation and shelter for more than 7 million displaced people.
Mr Lemarquis said the United States, as a donor, is “super dominant” in Congo, paying 70% of humanitarian costs last year. He said 7.8 million people will now lose food aid and 2.3 million children are at risk of fatal malnutrition.
Last week, the United Nations said Congo needed $2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 11 million people in 2025.
The United States was also the largest donor to Sudan last year, where it funded more than 1,000 public kitchens to feed hungry people fleeing the barbaric civil war. Volker Turk, the UN's human rights chief, said the kitchens are now closed and Sudan is facing “massive deaths from famine.”
The United States has been fighting famine around the world for decades, but famines can breed and become more deadly, as said by an independent non-governmental organization, International Crisis Group, which aims to prevent and resolve conflicts.
Help fight HIV and other diseases
In 2003, President George W. Bush developed an emergency plan for U.S. presidential AIDS relief, which has since invested more than $110 billion to compete with the world's HIV and AIDS.
The main focus of the program is sub-Saharan Africa, where most people with HIV live – 25 million of the 40 million patients worldwide.
For many African governments facing limited resources, the program is a lifeline that fills gaps in the national health budget, pays health care workers, and integrates millions of HIV patients with antiretroviral drugs.
According to the United Nations, among countries active in the program, new HIV cases have been cut by more than half since 2010, but experts warn that cuts can reverse that progress: According to an estimate, more than 500,000 people will die unnecessarily in South Africa alone.
In Congo, 8% of them died within a month when the fight recently blocked patients from taking antiretroviral drugs. He said that 15,000 people in Congo could die within a month due to USDA cuts.
On the Ivory Coast, the program provided half of the country's HIV response, has been forced to close 516 health care facilities this year.
But the U.S. funding for global health is beyond HIV, which is also the U.S. Presidential Malaria Initiative initiated by Mr. Bush, which has spent more than $9 billion to fight malaria since its inception in 2005.
Together, Nigeria and Congo account for more than one-third of global malaria infections and are both major recipients of US global health funding, with Nigeria relying on 21% of its national health budget.
According to the United States Agency for International Development, funding disappears every year, as many as 18 million malaria cases will be seen each year, 200,000 children are paralyzed by polio, and 1 million children are not receiving the deadliest feeling of hunger.
Long-term global aid leader
The Trump administration’s decision to demolish the US Agency for International Development is in line with the expansion of Western countries’ foreign aid programs.
France reduced its aid last year, while Germany (one of the world's most generous donors) cut aid and development aid by $5.3 billion in the past three years. The Netherlands also has assistance.
However, none of these countries’ aid programs are close to the size provided by the United States.
Since 1972, the total national income of the United States has been less than 0.3% of its total income. But in Africa – by far the poorest continent – it is huge amounts of money.
With the United States retreating now, China is expected to play a bigger role in the mainland where U.S. influence has been declining. Last year, China invested, loans and aid in the mainland and promised to create 1 million jobs over three years.
China is largely focused on developing infrastructure and accessing African resources. Experts say the scale of what the West has done in the past is unlikely to provide health and humanitarian assistance.
“Trump has released something, and we know it may never be the same again,” Moore said.
Relying on “from the American people”
Last week, court documents showed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided to cancel 90% of the US Agency for International Development grants, 40% of which came from the State Department.
Several aid groups and advocacy groups have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to stop it from permanently deceiving the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the cases are now being heard in court.
Meanwhile, Mr Rubio said the government will temporarily continue to provide life-saving assistance abroad to exempt humanitarian aid, including emergency food in January. But, because the payment system of the United States Agency for International Development has been blocked, even those programs that accept exemptions are difficult to continue, and thousands of agent workers have been fired or furloughed.
For some people affected by the cuts, survival seems to depend on whether Elon Musk, the billionaire who leads the government’s Ministry of Efficiency, notices the reason.
Last week, the CEO of a Georgia company made a specially fortified peanut butter bag for severely malnourished children told CNN that U.S. International Development has canceled all contracts for his company.
The podcast host resumed the contract after the interview caught Mr. Musk's attention. But because those who transport peanut butter are not paid, food may never reach the kids who need it.
Each pouch is marked “from the American people.”
