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The United States is cutting almost all its spending on aid. The biggest loser will be Africa.
For years, sub-Saharan Africa has received more U.S. aid money than any other region — except for 2022 and 2023, when the United States came to Ukraine’s aid after the Russian invasion.
In 2024, $12.7 billion of $41 billion in American foreign assistance went straight to sub-Saharan Africa, and billions more went to global programs — including health and climate initiatives — for which Africa was the main beneficiary.
Practically all of that aid is set to disappear in the wake of President Trump’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. The cuts are expected to undo decades of efforts to save lives, pull people out of poverty, combat terrorism and promote human rights in Africa, the world’s youngest, fastest-growing continent.
Trump officials have accused the agency of waste and fraud. In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Trump railed against aid to Africa, saying the United States was spending millions to promote L.G.B.T.Q. issues “in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.”
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that U.S.A.I.D. and the State Department must pay contractors as much as $2 billion for work already completed, but the ruling will have little affect on the wider consequences of eliminating most U.S. foreign assistance.
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