Elon Musk Government Department of Effectiveness (DOGE) emptied the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), taking a team of more than 10,000 Just under 300, according to an internal email consulted by Wired and several current USAID employees.
This decision leaves only 12 people in the agency’s office of Africa and eight people in its Asian office, with around 290 in total. There will be additional foreign workers preserved, say two USAID employees in Wired, but we don’t know how much.
“There are more depleted people in Asia than everywhere else, and our presence has always helped to counter the influence of China,” explains an employee of the USAID, who obtained anonymity due to fears of reprisals And because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the agency.
Tuesday, the workers of the USAID received an email Noting that all the staff would be on administrative leave from Friday, February 7, with the exception of the “designated staff responsible for critical mission functions”. The opinion was published on the agency’s website shortly after. He also said that agency workers parked abroad would be recalled in the United States.
The USAID and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
It was not an unexpected decision. USAID was a special target in Musk’s Crosshairs, with the centillionaire call him a “criminal organization” on X and bragging About “feed it through a wooden shredder”.
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President Donald Trump was also hostile to the agency. One of his first measures after taking office last month was to sign an executive decree to freeze foreign aid, a large part of which is implemented by USAID. Already, the change has hampered a human anti-trafic work, including projects that help people escape from Labor compounds where they are enslaved and forced to commit digital fraud, cable reported Wednesday.
Although the administration then specified that the “rescue” work would be authorized to continue within the framework of an emergency derogation program, the chaotic takeover of the agency made it impossible in practice . Cabled reported Monday, the HIV / AIDS vital work was disrupted, workers in the field in countries like Haiti unable to access antiretroviral drugs – even if a large part of this work has been technically granted a waiver.
Meanwhile, some current employees stationed abroad have not yet been informed of the latest changes in the agency. “The only official communication I received is people from the State Department of the Local Embassy, asking if or when we move so that they can renovate our homes,” explains a USAID worker parked to the ‘stranger.
