As West Africa enters its rainy season—bringing a surge in malaria-carrying mosquitoes—nurse Musa Adamu Ibrahim sits at home, unemployed.
In Nigeria, which accounts for 30 percent of global malaria deaths, clinics in conflict-hit Borno state have shut down, following the withdrawal of U.S. funding under former President Donald Trump, according to Ibrahim and other laid-off workers, reports AFP.
“The clinics are closed. There are no more free drugs or mosquito nets,” said Ibrahim.
The abrupt rollback of USAID, America’s primary foreign aid agency, is unraveling fragile health systems across Africa, built on cooperation between governments, nonprofits, and foreign donors.
The impact is spreading fast. Malnutrition clinics in Nigeria have shut. In Mali, medicine shipments are stuck in warehouses. In South Sudan, children seeking cholera care are dying en route to distant clinics. In Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, home to over 3,00,000, medicine shortages triggered protests.
“People with means can still access drugs,” said Lawrence Barat, former adviser to the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). “But the poorest… they’re the ones who will be cut off. They’re the ones whose children will die.”
Before closure, clinics where Ibrahim worked treated hundreds weekly. Aid worker Fatima Kunduli said hers handled 60 children a day for malaria and malnutrition.
With Nigeria’s rains starting and Senegal’s due in May, many African nations face the high-risk malaria season without crucial U.S. support.
Health ministry forecasts are falling apart, said Saschveen Singh of Doctors Without Borders (France). Each country had relied on U.S. aid differently.
In Mali, while malaria drugs are still arriving, Singh said, “American funds were crucial for coordinating their distribution.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, PMI had been the main malaria drug and test provider in nine provinces. “Suddenly, they’ll just not have drugs, and it’s going to be very difficult for other actors to step in,” Singh said, adding her team is “scrambling” to map the gaps.
In South Sudan, USAID-funded clinics closed during a cholera outbreak. Save the Children reported at least five children died walking to the next facility.
In Kakuma camp, medicine shortages are acute. “All the clinics around, you can get paracetamol. But all other drugs, no,” a camp elder told AFP.
At Kinshasa’s Kinkole Hospital, 23 mpox patients were being treated for free with U.S. support. “We’re thinking a disaster is coming,” said epidemiologist Yvonne Walo.
More setbacks may lie ahead. Washington is reportedly considering cuts to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance.
“This is too big a hole to be filled,” Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar told AFP.
If that happens, Doctors Without Borders’ vaccination advisor John Johnson expects programmes will feel the pressure later this year.
In Borno, where officials warn of Boko Haram’s return, Kunduli said the work was hard even with U.S. aid.
Now, “I could only imagine.”
Bd-pratidin English/FNC
