USAID to Lay Off Overseas Workers in Mid-August

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has informed its overseas workers that they will be laid off in mid-August as part of the Trump administration's cutback policies.

Non-U.S. employees working in USAID offices abroad make up more than 40 percent of the total staff of an agency that the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) intend to completely dismantle and hand over much of its functions to the State Department.

Many of these people, who were notified of their dismissals via email, have worked for USAID for decades and serve as its representatives on the ground, drawing on their contacts and knowledge of local language and customs.

"It's a waste of talent," said one USAID official, who called the firing "especially insulting to those in dangerous locations" who continue to work. "They're going to be left with nothing," he lamented, according to CNN, which had access to the resignation letter.

A few weeks ago, USAID had already announced that a large portion of its workers would lose their jobs as a result of this policy of cuts, which would mean the destruction of around 1,600 jobs.

The agency employs more than 10,000 people, with approximately 4,800 direct hires inside and outside the U.S.

The cuts go far beyond workers, with growing reports of the direct consequences of the lack of support USAID has provided across the globe.

Also today, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Save the Children revealed that at least 871 people have died from cholera in South Sudan since October, and they associate at least eight deaths in recent weeks with cuts in humanitarian aid.

Funding cuts in East Africa have also affected programmes in Somalia, where more than six million people face acute food insecurity, with further funding cuts potentially pushing millions more into famine.

In March, the World Food Programme (WFP) said 3.4 million Somalis were already facing famine or worse and that from April it would support “820,000 people monthly with food and cash assistance, down from a peak of 2.2 million monthly reached in 2024”.

The US State Department said on Tuesday it had reversed funding cuts for WFP emergency projects in 14 impoverished countries including Somalia, saying it had terminated some of the vital aid contracts in error.

“In Somalia, aid plays a vital role in supporting internally displaced people, people affected by conflict and other vulnerable communities that rely heavily on humanitarian assistance,” said Mohamed Elmi Afrah, a Somalia-based aid worker and policy analyst, noting that the effects of funding cuts were global but the “impact is especially severe in Africa.”