US diplomats have recently submitted domestic reports to Washington, which reflect the gloomy new reality abroad: the sudden abolition of Trump administration in foreign aid brings violence and chaos, which many have been warned.
The vacuum left after the US abandoned its humanitarian commitments, destabilized some of the most delicate places in the world and threw refugee camps further into excitement, reports of the State Department and notes received by Propublica.
Assessments are not only forecasts about the future, but also detailed reports that it has already happened, which makes them one of the first such reports from the Trump administration publicly – although experts suspect that they will not be the last. In their correspondence, diplomats warned that stopping assistance could undermine efforts to combat terrorism.
In the southeastern African country, Malawi’s reduction in the United Nations Food Program in the World Food Program “brought a sharp increase in criminal violence and cases of trafficking in a large refugee camp, US embassy officials said in late April. The world’s largest supplier of humanitarian food, WFP projects Financing by 40% compared to last year and was forced to reduce food rations in a wide dzaleka refugee camp by a third.
In the north, the US Embassy in Kenya reported that news about reducing refugee food programs have led to tough demonstrations, an unregistered cable earlier. During One protestPolice responded with a shot and injured four people. Refugees also died at the Food Distribution Center, officials in the cables, including a pregnant woman who died under the stamp. Assistance workers said they expected more people to be injured, “when vulnerable households are becoming more desperate.”
“This is devastating, but it is not surprising,” said Eric Schwartz, a former assistant secretary of the State Department and a member of the National Security Council during the democratic administrations, Propublica said. “That’s all that people in the national security community predicted.”
“I fight for adjectives to properly describe the horror that this administration has visited in the world,” Schwartz added. “It keeps me at night.”
In response to a detailed list of questions, the State Department’s press stated in an email: “This is very misleading the excitement and violence around the world in America. No one can reasonably expect the United States to feed each person on earth or be responsible for providing medicines for each living person.”
The press secretary also stated that the “vast majority” of WFP programs, which the Trump administration inherited, including in Malawi and Kenya, is still active.
But the US finances WFP annually. In 2025, the Trump administration has not yet approved any money in any country, which made the organization dramatically reduce food programs.
For example, in Kenya WFP reduce its rations in June to 28% – or less than 600 calories per person – low that has never been seen before, said Propublica, Kenya Country Lauren Landis director. The standard minimum WFP for adults is 2100 calories per day.
“We live from the evaporation of what was delivered in the late 2024 or early 2025,” Landis said. On a recent visit to the institution, who treated the unsuccessful children younger than 5, she said she saw the children who “went to the skeletons as I had not seen in ten.”
Since his post, President Donald Trump paragraph Restore safety and safety worldwide. At the same time, its administration, which works with the Elon Musk government’s efficiency department, quickly dismantled the US Agency for International Development, canceling the thousands of foreign aid programs, which they considered wasteful. More than 80% of USAID operations have been stopped, which crippled life -threatening efforts around the world.
Musk, who did not respond to a comment request, stated that Dage’s reduction was sent for humanitarian aid to fraudulent payments to organizations but did not contribute to a broad death. “Show us any evidence that it is true” – he – Note Recently. “It’s false.”
For decades, US administrations, guided by both parties, have seen humanitarian diplomacy, or a “soft power” as a cost -effective measure that helps stabilize flying but strategically important regions and provide basic needs for people who can otherwise appeal to international opponents. These investments, according to experts, help prevent regional conflict and war that can involve the United States “If you do not finance the State Department in full, I need to buy more ammunition”, Jim Matis, who was the Minister of Defense during the first Trump administration, at the first said Congress In 2013, when he headed the US Central Command.
Food security has long been closely linked to regional shocks. But despite the promises of Secretary of State Mark Rubio that rescue operations will continue against the background of a wide reduction of foreign aid, Trump administration stopped the WFP funding for several countries. Almost 50% of the WFP budget received from the US in 2024.
Since February, US developing officials have issued urgent warnings, which predicts that the decision of the Trump administration suddenly disables the desperate groups of the population may aggravate humanitarian crises and threaten the interests of the US national security, the records show. In one cable, diplomats in the Middle East reported that stopping assistance could expand opportunities such as the Taliban, and undermine efforts to combat terrorism, trafficking with narcotics and illegal immigration. The change can also “significantly cancel the transition” of the region and “serve only benefits the situation of the ISIS”, warned officials in another correspondence. “This may jeopardize the troops to the region.”
Embassies in Africa delivered similar reports. “We are deeply concerned that it suddenly stops all the stabilization of terrorism focused on terrorism and the humanitarian program in Somalia … Immediately and negatively affect the interests of the US national security,” the US Embassy in Mogadysh, Somalia wrote in February. The role of USAID in helping the military to prevent the recently liberated territory – “acquired for a great price of blood and treasures” – from the return of terrorists “undoubtedly and indispensable,” the officials added.
The Embassy in Nigeria told how orders for termination of work provoked supervision that threatens US resources to redirect into criminal or terrorist groups. .
In early April, Jeremy Levin, a lawyer in the late 20’s without prior government experience, currently overseeing the Foreign Aid Office and managed USAID operations – ordered to complete the WFP grants in more than a dozen countries. .
Kenya WFP expects a malnutrition crisis after the rations are reduced to the fourth standard minimum, Landis said. She is also concerned about the security of her employees who are already traveling with the police, given the likelihood that there will be more protests and that al-Shabab can make further invading at the camp.
In order for the US to bring its usual food assistance to Kenya by the end of the year, it had to be put on the boat, Landis said. This did not happen.
Credit:
Using the World Food/Kevin Gitonga program
In recent days, South Sudan’s fugitives in Ethiopia have been requested by a government delegation in order not to reduce the food rations further, according to the cable that documented the visit. Employees of assistance in another group of camps in North Africa reported that by the end of May they are expected to finance a program that fights a malnutrition for 8,600 pregnant and elderly mothers.
Despite the fact that it was one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi was a relative lighthouse stability in the region, which has been observed in recent decades. However, in early March, officials there warned Washington colleagues, who declined to more than $ 300 million, who plan to provide the country to help a year, dramatically increase the “consequences of the economy’s deterioration already in movement.”
At that time, 10 employees from a non -profit organization funded by USAID recently appeared in USAID offices in the Lylongwe capital requesting an unpaid salary after the US funding. The group is left without incidents, and it is unclear whether they are paid, but officials said they expected that countries around the world will face similar problems and closely monitor the “risen of risks for the safety and security of the embassy staff”. (Former staff of another non -profit organization in the neighboring country also searched their organization “From despair for what they are not paid”, according to the State Department.)
An hour from the capital of the country, Dalek, a former prison, which was transformed into a refugee camp in the 1990s to place people who escape from the war in neighboring Mozambique. In the decade, he has been subjected to balls since then, filling people working from conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The camp, which was built to hold about 10,000, now lives more than 55,000 people.
Credit:
African media on the Internet/Alami
Herodukund Devet, a refugee from Burundi, came to Malawi when she was 3 and lived in 23 years. She now works in the propaganda inua, which provides legal services and supporters on behalf of the refugees at the camp. She said the tension is high amid the rumors that food and other help would shrink further. Since 2023, the Malawi government forbade refugees to live or work on the camp, and after the increase in crime and drug addiction was reduced earlier this year. “It happens because people are hungry,” Davit Propublicaa said. “They have nowhere to go.”
Now the Malawi government is likely to close its boundaries of refugees in response to the crisis and overload of financing in Dzaleka, the State Department’s WFP spokesman said, the agency reports.
Diplomats continue to warn the Trump administration worse. The WFP expects to suspend food aid in July in July.
“WFP suggests fierce protests,” the State Department’s Embassy said, “which could potentially lead to communities and refugees, as well as focus on the UN and WFP offices when the pipeline eventually breaks.”
PROPUBLICA plans to continue to illuminate USAID, the State Department and the consequences of the US foreign aid. We want to hear from you. Contact Britta Murphy’s signal at +1 508-523-5195 and Anna Maria Barry-Cester at +1 408-504-8131.
