As clouds gather and humidity rises across west Africa, whose annual rains bring an uptick of deadly, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Musa Adamu Ibrahim, a nurse, is sitting at home, unemployed.
In Nigeria, clinics that once served 300 people a day in the conflict-hit Borno state have abruptly shut down, Adamu Ibrahim, a laid-off nurse, and other laid-off workers told AFP, following the withdrawal of American funding by President Donald Trump.
“The clinics have been closed and (there are) no more free drugs or mosquito nets,” said Ibrahim.
The sudden dismantling of USAID — the country’s main foreign development arm — is unravelling health care systems across Africa that were built from a complicated web of national health ministries, the private sector, nonprofits and foreign aid.
As the effects of the cuts compound, the resulting damage — and deaths — are unlikely to end anytime soon: malaria cases will peak around the end of the rainy season, while threatened American cuts to global vaccine funding would likely be felt later in the year.
