US Terminates All USAID Positions Abroad

By Staff, Agencies

By the end of September, there will be no such thing as the United States Agency for International Development [USAID], The Guardian reported, because all of its overseas staff will be terminated.

Many, if not most, are local hires who have depended on a USAID salary for years and sometimes decades to support their families.

The Guardian attributed the revelation to a State Department cable that it had obtained. It said the chiefs of mission at embassies in more than 100 countries have been notified that a significant overhaul is coming.

“The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,” the cable said.

The State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID” from 15 June, it added.

In early March, Rubio said that US President Donald Trump's purge of the six-decade-old USAID was complete and that 5,200 of its 6,200 programs had been eliminated.

The remaining programs, he said, would now be administered “more effectively” under the State Department and in consultation with Congress.

The axing of the aid agency was an initiative from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, which aimed to save Washington billions in what it believed was unnecessary spending.

Since the Trump administration announced an immediate suspension of all foreign assistance, blocking ongoing aid programs and freezing new funding, humanitarian workers around the world have been trying to work out exactly what this means for the millions of vulnerable people they are trying to keep alive.