A USAID official warns of avoidable deaths brought on by Trump’s foreign aid block before announcing that they are on leave
A USAID official warned that Trump’s aid freeze could result in avoidable deaths before announcing that he had been placed on leave.
After warning in an email on Sunday that the Trump administration’s dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would result in needless deaths, a top official at the agency told his workers less than half an hour later that he had been placed on leave.
As reported by Reuters, USAID’s acting assistant administrator for global health, Nicholas Enrich, said in a seven-page memo that “political leadership” has prevented the provision of life-saving humanitarian aid across the globe. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had promised that help would continue despite cost-cutting measures taken by billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, but his remarks plainly contradicted that promise.
Enrich sent another email twenty minutes after delivering the memo, which Reuters was also able to view, in which he said he had “just received notification that I have been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately.”
The decision to put Enrich on administrative leave was decided on Wednesday, before his memo regarding USAID’s disintegration, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Requests for comment were not immediately answered by representatives of the State Department or the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Moreover, Enrich did not reply to questions from Reuters.
The consequences of the halted USAID initiatives, particularly the efforts to contain a severe Ebola outbreak in Uganda that had killed two individuals and infected 10 more, was underscored in Enrich’s note.
“This will undoubtedly lead to avoidable fatalities, instability, and significant national security risks,” Enrich wrote in the document, which was circulated to USAID’s global health division on Sunday afternoon and dated February 28.
About 90% of USAID’s worldwide operations will now be discontinued, as the Trump administration stated last week that nearly 10,000 foreign aid programs and contracts totaling roughly $60 billion would be canceled. The agency’s shutdown is a part of a larger attempt by Musk’s recently created Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the size of the federal government, which is upsetting international humanitarian aid efforts.
Enrich calculated in a separate memo obtained by Reuters that a one-year suspension of USAID’s life-saving assistance could lead to an additional 71,000 to 166,000 deaths from malaria, a nearly 40% increase, a 28% to 32% increase in tuberculosis cases globally, and up to 28,000 cases of newly emerging infectious diseases like Ebola.
Secretary of State Rubio temporarily waived requirements for critical aid, like as food, housing, and necessary medications, after Trump ordered in January that all foreign aid be frozen awaiting review.
