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muriel_volestrangler

(105,594 posts)
Mon Dec 15, 2025, 05:53 AM Dec 15

Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera. [View all]

A long look from ProPublica at a specific case of how Trump killed people in South Sudan by abolishing USAID. Two more articles to come.

Despite the steps to insulate themselves, dire warnings poured in from diplomats and government experts around the world. The cuts would cost countless lives, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the other Trump officials were told repeatedly. The team of aides pressed on, galvanized by two men who did little to hide their disdain for the agency: first Peter Marocco, a blunt-spoken Marine veteran, and then 28-year-old Jeremy Lewin, who, despite having no government or aid experience, often personally decided which programs should be axed.
...
Days later, on a remote patch of land in South Sudan, a 38-year-old man named Tor Top gathered with his neighbors outside the local health clinic. Surrounded by floodwaters, their hamlet of thatch and mud homes had been battling a massive outbreak of cholera, a deadly disease spread by poor sanitation. Around the country, it had infected 36,000 people in three months, killing more than 600, many of them babies. Top’s family lived in the epicenter.

The clinic, one of 12 in the area run by the Christian, Maryland-based humanitarian organization World Relief and funded by USAID, provided a key weapon in the fight: IV bags to stave off dehydration and death. The bags cost just 62 cents each, and in three months, the clinics had helped save more than 500 people.

Now, Top, who lived with his wife, children and mother in a one-room house less than 50 feet from the clinic, listened as World Relief staff shared grim news: The Trump administration had stopped USAID’s funding to World Relief. Their clinic, their lifeline, was closing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-cholera-deaths-trump-humanitarian-aid-cuts-south-sudan


"Since South Sudan was hit by catastrophic floods in 2020, the Bentiu refugee camp has been an island, made habitable only through a complex drainage and dike system largely funded by the U.S. Dara Johnston/UNICEF"
17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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courtesy of the "pro-life Christian" party Skittles Dec 15 #1
At least mgardener Dec 15 #10
I remember that ridiculous experiment Skittles Dec 15 #11
"Come piss on it conservatives" would be more apt Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Dec 15 #13
Musk mass murder Blues Heron Dec 15 #2
They need to... 2naSalit Dec 15 #3
they'll suffer just like Dubya & Cheney did for starting a war based on lies Skittles Dec 15 #14
Sadly... 2naSalit Dec 15 #16
There's a sickness in America mountain grammy Dec 15 #4
You really need to click the link and read the story Playingmantis Dec 15 #5
I just can't Skittles Dec 15 #15
I hope these people are held to account someday Mr. Sparkle Dec 15 #6
This is just the tip of the iceberg angryxyouth Dec 15 #7
Once again, they show they have no empathy sakabatou Dec 15 #8
The executioners: dalton99a Dec 15 #9
Thank you for starting this thread. CBHagman Dec 15 #12
... Solly Mack Dec 15 #17
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