President Donald Trump’s administration plans to keep fewer than 300 staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) out of the agency’s worldwide total of more than 10,000, four sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Washington’s primary humanitarian aid agency has been a target of a government reorganisation programme spearheaded by businessman Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, since the Republican president took office on January 20.
The four sources familiar with the plan said only 294 staff at the agency would be allowed to keep their jobs, including only 12 in the Africa bureau and eight in the Asia bureau.
“That’s outrageous,” said J. Brian Atwood, who served as head of USAID for more than six years, adding the mass termination of personnel would effectively kill an agency that has helped keep tens of millions of people around the world from dying.
“A lot of people will not survive,” said Atwood, now a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute.
The U.S. Department of State did not respond to a request for comment.
The administration announced on Tuesday it was going to put on leave all directly hired USAID employees globally, and recall thousands of personnel working overseas.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said the administration was identifying and designating a programme that would be exempted from the sweeping stop-work orders, which have threatened efforts around the globe to stop the spread of disease, prevent famine and otherwise alleviate poverty.
(Reuters)
