Only 294 employees with the United States Agency for International Development have been deemed essential among roughly 10,000 global staff members.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly said that crucial health and humanitarian aid will continue, following threats from Donald Trump and Elon Musk to dissolve the entire agency, but the administration intends to decimate its size, including limiting staff to only 12 people in Africa.
An internal chart of the employee breakdown shared by a former USAID global health director also notes that only 21 people will serve the Middle East, with only eight people assigned to all of Asia and eight people assigned to Latin America.
A memo on the agency’s website earlier this week noted that nearly the entire workforce would be put on leave by the end of the week, with only a small number of “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” who would be exempt.
USAID workers abroad, which account for roughly two-thirds of the agency’s staff, are expected to return to the United States within 30 days, according to the memo. The agency would “arrange and pay for return travel,” the memo states.
Trump administration officials have smeared the agency’s spending as unnecessary, wasteful, politically motivated and in conflict with the president’s foreign policy and ideological agenda.
Rapidly escalating threats to the 63-year-old agency — which funds and supports health services, disaster relief and anti-poverty efforts around the world — have scrambled employees, leaving many in shock and disbelief as Musk and his allies baselessly label USAID a “criminal organization” and a “radical-left political psy op.”
The Independent has requested comment from the State Department, which has assumed control of the agency in the wake of Trump’s presidency.
USAID manages aid projects in roughly 100 countries with a budget of roughly $40 billion, including tens of millions of dollars returned to the American economy through the purchase of U.S. food shipments.
This is a developing story
