Africa Received Billions in U.S. Aid.

The United States is cutting almost all its spending on aid. The biggest loser will be Africa. With the exception of 2022 and 2023, when the US stepped in to support Ukraine following the Russian invasion, sub-Saharan Africa has long received more U.S. assistance funding than any other area.

Of the $41 billion in U.S. foreign aid in 2024, $12.7 billion went directly to sub-Saharan Africa, but billions more went to international projects, including as health and climate measures, that primarily benefited Africa.

Following President Trump’s plan to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, almost all of that funding is expected to vanish. It is anticipated that the cuts will reverse decades of work to defeat terrorism, lift people out of poverty, save lives, and advance human rights in Africa, the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world.

Trump administration officials have charged the agency with fraud and waste. Mr. Trump blasted aid to Africa in his Tuesday speech to Congress, claiming that the US was paying millions to advance LGBTI concerns “in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.”

Although the Supreme Court decided Wednesday that the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. must pay contractors up to $2 billion for work already done, the decision will not significantly impact the broader ramifications of cutting off the majority of U.S. foreign aid.

The majority of help has gone toward catastrophe, health, and humanitarian relief. Since a significant initiative aimed at gathering data on global health has also been discontinued, it will be more difficult to precisely monitor the effects of these tragedies.

According to surveys, opinions among Americans about the effectiveness and value of overseas aid are mixed. However, the manner in which it is being disassembled is “almost gratuitous in its cruelty,” according to academic and former Liberian minister W. Gyude Moore.

Africa is home to seven of the eight nations most at risk from the U.S.A.I.D. cuts (the other being Afghanistan). Below is a summary of the losses that Africa will experience when the United States reduces its global assistance payments.