PRESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release:
4 March 2025
Illegal termination of 5,800 USAID programs including HIV, TB, malaria, Ebola, and virtually all health assistance will result in countless deaths and will devastate health outcomes in Uganda and around the world
The Trump Administration Must Restore HIV and all Health Assistance Programs Immediately
(Kampala) Civil society reacted today to the elimination by the Trump Administration of 5,800 U.S. taxpayer-funded and Congressionally-approved USAID awards.
On February 26, in response to increasing pressure from the U.S. Courts ordered to restart foreign aid, which has been frozen since January 24, the State Department abruptly announced it was completely terminating 90% of USAID’s programs.
In Uganda, it appears only four USAID-funded programs have been spared from termination. Globally, the terminations do not follow any pattern. Many of the programs that had sought and received ‘waivers’ from the January 24 funding freeze were also terminated, including life saving HIV, tuberculosis, Ebola, and emergency food aid programs.
“This is nothing short of a crime against humanity–with these moves, the U.S. government is attempting to destroy the HIV response and will be responsible for preventable deaths, sickness, and destruction in our communities.” said Lillian Mworeko, Executive Director of International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS Eastern Africa (ICWEA). HIV treatment for 1.3 million Ugandans had been supported by US government funding. (More about the impact for Uganda of the Stop-Work Order is here.)
USAID officials leaked internal memos on 2 March estimating the catastrophic human harms from these decisions, including a 40% increase in malaria deaths, 28,000 cases of Ebola, 200,000 new cases of children paralyzed with polio, one million children robbed of treatment for severe malnutrition, and more than 28,000 new cases of Ebola and other infectious diseases every year. (See more here and here). In South Africa alone, scientists predict an end to the PEPFAR program will result in more than 600,000 additional deaths over ten years and 565,000 new infections.
Uganda is currently battling Ebola outbreak, and the USAID-led Ebola response, through Baylor Uganda, UNICEF, IOM and URC, was defunded and then terminated. A 4-year old Ugandan boy died on Monday from Ebola, and U.S. Ambassador William Popp has linked the ongoing outbreak with termination of USAID funding.
In addition to elimination of many of Uganda’s HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care programs, community-led programs supporting vulnerable and stigmatized communities have been killed off.
“1.4 million Ugandans are living with HIV and millions more are at risk of becoming HIV-positive,” said Richard Lusimbo of Uganda Key Populations Consortium. “Our progress has come when communities are at the center of Uganda’s HIV response. Criminalized Ugandans are at greater risk of HIV acquisition around the world, and community-led responses are essential to ensuring access to quality services; these highly effective programs have also been eliminated with no justification or explanation.”
According to activists, virtually eliminating all USAID programs is not only cruel and wasteful and dangerous, it is also illegal; only an act of Congress can close USAID, not the President; funding for these lifesaving health programs was already budgeted for by Congress and cannot be diverted for other purposes by Trump—because Congress has sole authority to appropriate funds.
Civil society groups also demanded that our parliament and president take action. “The health, dignity, and lives of millions of Ugandans hang in the balance, and we urge the Government to act swiftly, decisively, and transparently,” said Kenneth Mwehonge of HEPS-Uganda. “We are calling for an emergency supplementary appropriation by Parliament to close the severe gaps and ensure uninterrupted access to evidence-based and human rights-supporting testing, prevention and treatment for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, mpox, Ebola, and all other health priorities Ugandans are facing. The government must wake up and massively scale up its investment in our health priorities.”
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