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Global coronavirus death toll passes 3,000 with new China count

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A woman (R), who has recovered from the COVID-19 coronavirus infection, is disinfected by volunteers as she arrives at a hotel for a 14-day quarantine after being discharged from a hospital in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on March 1, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 02 March 2020
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Global coronavirus death toll passes 3,000 with new China count

  • The World Health Organization said Sunday that the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illness
Updated 02 March 2020
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BEIJING: The global death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic surpassed 3,000 on Monday after more people died at its epicenter in China, as cases soared around the world and US officials faced criticism over the country’s readiness for an outbreak.
The virus has now infected more than 89,000 people and spread to more than 60 countries after first emerging in China late last year.
With fears of a pandemic on the rise, the World Health Organization urged all countries to stock up on critical care ventilators to treat patients with severe symptoms of the deadly respiratory disease.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus has raised fears over its impact on the world economy, causing global markets to log their worst losses since the 2008 financial crisis.

China’s economy has ground to a halt with large swathes of the country under quarantine or measures to restrict travel.
Other countries have started to enact their own drastic containment measures, including banning arrivals from virus-hit countries, locking down towns, urging citizens to stay home and suspending major events such as football matches or trade fairs.
In a stark example of growing global anxiety, the Louvre — the world’s most visited museum — closed on Sunday after staff refused to work over fears about the virus.

China

China reported 42 more deaths on Monday — all in central Hubei province. The virus is believed to have originated in a market that sold wild animals in Hubei’s capital, Wuhan.
The death toll in China alone rose to 2,912, but it is also rising abroad, with the second highest tally in Iran with 54, while the United States and Australia had their first fatalities from the disease over the weekend.
The WHO says the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illness.
It has a mortality rate ranging between two and five percent — much higher than the flu, at 0.1 percent, but lower than another coronavirus-linked illness, SARS, which had a 9.5 percent death rate when it killed nearly 800 people in 2002-2003.
But infections are also rising faster abroad than in China now, as the country’s drastic measures, including quarantining some 56 million people in Hubei since late January, appear to be paying off.After an increase on Sunday, China’s National Health Commission reported 202 new infections on Monday, the lowest daily rise since late January. There have been more than 80,000 infections in the world’s most populous country.
A Chinese court has sentenced a man to death for fatally stabbing two officials at a checkpoint set up to control the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak.
On Sunday a court handed down a death sentence to a 23-year-old man after he stabbed two officials at one local village checkpoint.
The incident happened on February 6 when Ma Jianguo was driving a minivan through a checkpoint at Luo Meng village in Honghe, southwestern Yunnan province, where he was stopped.
After Ma refused to cooperate with officials, his passenger began trying to remove the roadblock, the court said, and the local official started filming Ma and the other man on his mobile phone.
A furious Ma stabbed the official -- a local poverty alleviation cadre -- in the chest and abdomen with a knife he carried with him and then attacked another official who came to the victim's aid.
The two men died from their wounds.
The court statement said that although Ma had “voluntarily surrendered and truthfully confessed,” the killings were “extremely vicious.”

By contrast, infections are soaring elsewhere.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 150 on Monday from 129 on Sunday, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.
More than half of the cases, 86, are in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, where several schools and daycare centres will be closed on Monday to try to prevent the spread of the virus after staff members tested positive.

South Korea
South Korea reported nearly 500 new coronavirus cases Monday, sending the largest national total in the world outside China past 4,000.
Four more people had died, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, taking the toll to 22.
Infection numbers have surged in the world’s 12th-largest economy in recent days and the country’s central bank has warned of negative growth in the first quarter, noting the epidemic will hit both consumption and exports, while scores of events have been canceled or postponed over the contagion.
The figures are expected to rise further as authorities carry out checks on more than 260,000 people associated with the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a religious group often condemned as a cult that is linked to more than half the cases.
A 61-year-old female member developed a fever on February 10 but attended at least four church services in Daegu — the country’s fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million and the center of the outbreak — before being diagnosed.
Of the 476 new cases announced Monday — taking the total to 4,212 — more than 90 percent were in Daegu and the neighboring province of North Gyeongsang, the KCDC said.

Italy
Infections nearly doubled over the weekend in Italy, Europe’s hardest hit country with nearly 1,700 cases.
Rome said Sunday it would deliver $4 million in emergency aid to sectors affected by the virus.

United States

New York state has confirmed its first coronavirus case, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter Sunday evening, calling on residents to remain calm and not have any “undue anxiety.”

Cuomo said the patient is a woman in her 30s who contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran. He said the woman is in quarantine in her home.

Health officials in Washington state said Sunday night that a second person had died from the coronavirus.
Researchers said the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the greater Seattle area.
In a statement, Public Health— Seattle & King County said a man in his 70s died Saturday. On Friday, health officials said a man in his 50s died of coronavirus. Both had underlying health conditions, and both were being treated at a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, east of Seattle.
Washington state now has 12 confirmed cases.
State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections announced in California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state.
Authorities in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition, and two health care workers in California were also diagnosed.
A man in his 50s died in Washington on Saturday, and health officials said 50 more people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and being tested for the virus. On Sunday night, the International Association of Fire Fighters said 25 members who responded to calls for help at the nursing facility are being quarantined.
The first US case was a Washington state man who had visited China, where the virus first emerged, but several recent cases in the US have had no known connection to travelers.
In California, two health care workers in the San Francisco Bay area who cared for an earlier coronavirus patient were diagnosed with the virus on Sunday, the Alameda and Solano counties said in a joint statement.
The health care workers are both employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, California, and had exposure to a patient treated there before being transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the statement said. That patient was the first person in the US discovered to have contracted the coronavirus with no known overseas travel.
Alameda County declared a state of emergency on Sunday following the news.
Elsewhere, authorities announced Sunday a third case in Illinois and Rhode Island and New York’s first cases as worried Americans swarmed stores to stock up on basic goods such as bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper.
The hospitalized patient in Rhode Island is a man in his 40s who had traveled to Italy in February. New York confirmed Sunday that a woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. The patient is not in serious condition. She has respiratory symptoms and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
As the fallout continued, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar sought to reassure the American public that the federal government is working to make sure state and local authorities are able to test for the virus. Both said during a round of TV talk show appearances Sunday that thousands more testing kits had been distributed to state and local officials, with thousands more to come.
“They should know we have the best public health system in the world looking out for them,” Azar said, adding that additional cases will be reported and the overall risk to Americans is low.
As the cases ticked up, some Americans stocked up on basic supplies — particularly in areas with diagnosed cases — and began to take note of the impact on daily life. Stores such as Costco sold out of toilet paper, bottled water and hand sanitizer outside Portland, Oregon, where a case was announced Friday. Sports games and practices were canceled into the coming school week. Some churches said they would not offer communion because of fears of viral spread.

ALGERIA

Algeria has confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infections, a woman and her daughter aged 53 and 24 years respectively, the health ministry said on Monday.
The cases brought to three the number of people infected with the virus in the North African country.
The two people were put in isolation in Blida province south of the capital Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.
The woman and her daughter in February hosted an 83-year-old man and his daughter based in France who were tested positive for coronavirus after their return to France, the statement said.
Algeria last week announced its first coronavirus case, an Italian national who arrived in the country on Feb.17. He was later flown home to Italy, which has almost 1,700 cases.

The latest figures reported by each government’s health authority:
— Mainland China: 2,912 deaths among 80,026 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
— Hong Kong: 94 cases, 2 deaths
— Macao: 10 cases
— South Korea: 4,212 cases, 22 deaths
— Italy: 1,694 cases, 34 deaths
— Iran: 978 cases, 54 deaths
— Japan: 961 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 12 deaths
— France: 130 cases, including one on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe; 2 deaths
— Singapore: 106 cases
— United States: 80 cases, 2 deaths
— Spain: 71 cases
— Germany: 66
— Kuwait: 45 cases
— Thailand: 42 cases, 1 death
— Taiwan: 40 cases, 1 death
— Bahrain: 38 cases
— United Kingdom: 35 cases, 1 death
— Malaysia: 29 cases
— Australia: 23 cases, 1 death
— United Arab Emirates: 21 cases
— Canada: 24
— Iraq: 19
— Norway: 19
— Vietnam: 16
— Sweden: 15
— Netherlands: 10
— Switzerland: 10
— Greece: 7
— Lebanon: 7
— Croatia: 7
— Finland: 6
— Oman: 6
— Austria: 5
— Israel: 5
— Russia: 5
— Mexico: 4
— Pakistan: 4
— Czech Republic 3
— India: 3
— Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death
— Romania: 3 cases
— Belarus: 2
— Belgium: 2
— Brazil: 2
— Denmark: 2
— Georgia: 2
— Algeria: 1
— Afghanistan: 1
— Armenia 1
— Azerbaijan: 1
— Cambodia: 1
— Dominican Republic 1
— Ecuador: 1
— Egypt: 1
— Estonia: 1
— Iceland: 1
— Ireland: 1
— Lithuania: 1
— Monaco: 1
— Nepal: 1
— New Zealand: 1
— Nigeria: 1
— North Macedonia: 1
— Qatar: 1
— San Marino: 1
— Sri Lanka: 1

Topics: Coronavirus

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NYU denies diploma to student who criticized Israel in commencement speech

Updated 2 sec ago
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NYU denies diploma to student who criticized Israel in commencement speech

Updated 2 sec ago
NEW YORK: New York University said it would deny a diploma to a student who used a graduation speech to condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and what he described as US “complicity in this genocide.”
Logan Rozos’s speech Wednesday for graduating students of NYU’s Gallatin School sparked waves of condemnation from pro-Israel groups, who demanded the university take aggressive disciplinary action against him.
In a statement, NYU spokesperson John Beckman apologized for the speech and accused the student of misusing his platform “to express his personal and one-sided political views.”
“He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,” Beckman added. “The University is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”
Universities across the country have faced tremendous pressure to crack down on pro-Palestinian speech or risk funding cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has equated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
But NYU, which is attended by Trump’s son, Barron, has largely avoided the president’s ire so far.
Rozos, an actor and member of the Gallatin Theater Troupe, was selected by fellow students to give the liberal art program’s address. He said he felt a moral and political obligation to speak to the audience about what he called the atrocities in Palestine.
“The genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” he said.
The speech drew loud cheers from the crowd, along with a standing ovation from some graduating students.
But as video of the speech spread online, it was roundly denounced by pro-Israel groups, who accused NYU of creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students.
“No student — especially Jewish students — should have to sit through politicized rhetoric that promotes harmful lies about Israel during such a personal milestone,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement.
The group #EndJewHatred suggested the speech — which did not mention Jewish people — would meet the university’s newly-expanded definition of antisemitism, which includes certain criticism of Israel.
An emailed inquiry to Rozos was not returned.
As pro-Palestinian rallies roiled campuses across the country last spring, the 2024 commencement season was was marked by tensions and cancelations, and strict limits on what students could say.
With billions of dollars of funding at risk from the Trump administration, the stakes for universities are even higher this year, some faculty said.
“They are bending over backward to crack down on speech that runs counter to what the current administration in Washington espouses,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU.
“Myself and many of my colleagues are frankly appalled at the decision that’s being made to deny a student speaker his diploma,” Ross added. “This is a very good example of an administration falling down on the job.”

Salman Rushdie stage attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison

Updated 16 May 2025
AP
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Salman Rushdie stage attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison

  • Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault for the attack on stage during a lecture in New York state
  • He faces a second trial on terrorism charges with prosecutors claiming he had supported Hezbollah
Updated 16 May 2025
AP

MAYVILLE, New York: The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison.

A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.

Rushdie did not return to court to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.

Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.

“Salman Rushdie wants to disrespect other people,” said Matar, clad in white-striped jail clothing and wearing handcuffs. “He wants to be a bully, he wants to bully other people. I don’t agree with that.”

Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.

In requesting the maximum sentence, Schmidt told the judge that Matar “chose this. He designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it.”

Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had a otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate.

“Every day since then, for the last couple of years, this case has been an international publicity sponge,” Barone said. “There was no presumption, ever, of innocence for Mr. Matar from the very beginning.”

Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center. The author of “Midnight’s Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”

Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.

Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he traveled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.

Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he traveled freely over the past quarter century.

Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.

Video of the assault, captured by the venue’s cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.

Jurors in Matar’s first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.

Topics: Salman Rushdie

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Conflict and climate drive record global hunger in 2024, UN says

Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters
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Conflict and climate drive record global hunger in 2024, UN says

  • “The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises paints a staggering picture,” said Rein Paulsen, FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience
  • “Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks are the main drivers, and they often overlap“
Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters

ROME: Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition rose for a sixth consecutive year in 2024, affecting more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories, according to a UN report released on Friday.

That marked a 5 percent increase on 2023 levels, with 22.6 percent of populations in worst-hit regions experiencing crisis-level hunger or worse.

“The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises paints a staggering picture,” said Rein Paulsen, Director of Emergencies and Resilience at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks are the main drivers, and they often overlap,” he added.

Looking ahead, the UN warned of worsening conditions this year, citing the steepest projected drop in humanitarian food funding since the report’s inception — put at anywhere between 10 percent to more than 45 percent.

US President Donald Trump has led the way, largely shutting down the US Agency for International Development, which provides aid to the world’s needy, canceling more than 80 percent of its humanitarian programs.

“Millions of hungry people have lost, or will soon lose, the critical lifeline we provide,” warned Cindy McCain, the head of the Rome-based World Food Programme.

Conflict was the leading cause of hunger, impacting nearly 140 million people across 20 countries in 2024, including areas facing “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity in Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. Sudan has confirmed famine conditions.

Economic shocks, such as inflation and currency devaluation, helped push 59.4 million people into food crises in 15 countries — nearly double the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic — including Syria and Yemen.

Extreme weather, particularly El Nino-induced droughts and floods, shunted 18 countries into crisis, affecting more than 96 million people, especially in Southern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Horn of Africa.

The number of people facing famine-like conditions more than doubled to 1.9 million — the highest since monitoring for the global report began in 2016.

Malnutrition among children reached alarming levels, the report said. Nearly 38 million children under five were acutely malnourished across 26 nutrition crises, including in Sudan, Yemen, Mali and Gaza.

Forced displacement also exacerbated hunger. Nearly 95 million forcibly displaced people, including refugees and internally displaced persons, lived in countries facing food crises, such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia.

Despite the grim overall trend, 2024 saw some progress. In 15 countries, including Ukraine, Kenya and Guatemala, food insecurity eased due to humanitarian aid, improved harvests, easing inflation and a decline in conflict.

To break the cycle of hunger, the report called for investment in local food systems. “Evidence shows that supporting local agriculture can help the most people, with dignity, at lower cost,” Paulsen said.

Topics: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO Food insecurity malnutrition

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Russia jails Australian man for 13 years for fighting on Ukraine’s side

Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters
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Russia jails Australian man for 13 years for fighting on Ukraine’s side

  • The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops
Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russia has sentenced an Australian citizen to 13 years in a maximum security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, state prosecutors in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia said on Friday.

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was found guilty by a court of participating in an armed conflict as a mercenary, a statement from the prosecutors said.

The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops between March and December 2024.

Australian media reported last year that Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine’s military when he was captured by Russian forces.

In January, Australia summoned the Russian ambassador over what turned out to be false reports that Jenkins had been killed after being captured by Russia.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Oscar Jenkins Russian troops court

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Children die as USAID aid cuts snap a lifeline for the world’s most malnourished

Updated 16 May 2025
AP
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Children die as USAID aid cuts snap a lifeline for the world’s most malnourished

  • For years USAID had been the backbone of the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria
  • Globally, 50 percent of the therapeutic foods for treating malnutrition in children were funded by USAID, and 40 percent of the supplies were produced in the US
Updated 16 May 2025
AP

DIKWA, Nigeria: Under the dappled light of a thatched shelter, Yagana Bulama cradles her surviving infant. The other twin is gone, a casualty of malnutrition and the international funding cuts that are snapping the lifeline for displaced communities in Nigeria’s insurgency-ravaged Borno state.

“Feeding is severely difficult,” said Bulama, 40, who was a farmer before Boko Haram militants swept through her village, forcing her to flee. She and about 400,000 other people at the humanitarian hub of Dikwa — virtually the entire population — rely on assistance. The military restricts their movements to a designated “safe zone,” which severely limits farming.

For years, the United States Agency for International Development had been the backbone of the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria, helping non-government organizations provide food, shelter and health care to millions of people. But this year, the Trump administration cut more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world.

Programs serving children were hit hard.

Bulama previously lost young triplets to hunger before reaching therapeutic feeding centers in Dikwa. When she gave birth to twins last August, both were severely underweight. Workers from Mercy Corps enrolled them in a program to receive a calorie-dense paste used to treat severe acute malnutrition.

But in February, Mercy Corps abruptly ended the program that was entirely financed by USAID. Two weeks later, one of the twins died, Bulama said.

She has no more tears, only dread for what may come next.

“I don’t want to bury another child,” she said.

‘Very traumatic’
Globally, 50 percent of the therapeutic foods for treating malnutrition in children were funded by USAID, and 40 percent of the supplies were produced in the US, according to Shawn Baker, chief program officer at Helen Keller Intl and former chief nutritionist at USAID.

He said the consequence could be 1 million children not receiving treatment for severe malnutrition, resulting in 163,500 additional deaths per year. For Helen Keller Intl, its programs in Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria have been terminated.

“It is very traumatic,” said Trond Jensen, the head of the United Nations humanitarian office in Maiduguri, Borno’s capital, of the funding cuts, noting that other donors, including the European Union, have taken similar steps this year. “One of the things is the threat to the lives of children.”

UNICEF still runs a therapeutic feeding center nearby, which now supports Bulama’s surviving baby, but its capacity is stretched. It is turning away many people previously served by other aid groups that have pulled out due to funding cuts.

Intersos, an Italian humanitarian organization, has the only remaining facility providing in-patient services for malnutrition in Dikwa, treating the most perilous cases. Its workers say they are overwhelmed, with at least 10 new admissions of seriously malnourished children daily.

“Before the USAID cut, we made a lot of progress,” said Ayuba Kauji, a health and nutrition supervisor. “Now my biggest worry is high mortality. We don’t have enough resources to keep up.”

Intersos was forced to reduce its staff from 30 to 11 in Dikwa after the USAID freeze. Its nutrition and health facilities now operate solely on support from the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund, a smaller pot of money contributed by a few European countries. That funding will be finished in June.

The crisis is equally acute in Maiduguri, where the economy is reeling from massive terminations of aid workers. At another Intersos-run facility, 10 of the 12 doctors have left and four nurses remain, with 50 new admissions of malnourished children per week.

“It used to be far less,” said Emmanuel Ali, one of the remaining doctors.

Beyond nutrition
The effects of the funding cuts extend far beyond nutrition. At the International Organization for Migration’s reception center in Dikwa, thousands of displaced families and those escaping Boko Haram captivity are stranded. There are no new shelters being built and no support for relocation.

“Before, organizations like Mercy Corps built mud-brick homes and rehabilitated damaged shelters to absorb people from the IOM reception center,” said one official at the center, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the situation. “Now, that has stopped.”

Jensen, the UN humanitarian head in Maiduguri, said, “sadly, we are not seeing additional funding to make up for the US cuts.” He warned that vulnerable people could turn to risky ways of coping, including joining violent groups.

A global problem
The crisis in Nigeria is part of a larger reckoning. According to Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Mercy Corps’ vice president for policy and advocacy, 40 of its 62 US-funded programs with the potential to reach 3.5 million people in Nigeria, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon and Gaza have been terminated.

In Mozambique, where jihadist violence in the north has displaced over a million people since 2017, humanitarian organizations face steep shortfalls with “devastating” effects on the needy, said Frederico João, chairman of the forum of NGOs in the region.

More widely, the USAID funding cut compromises Mozambique’s health sector, especially in HIV/AIDS care, said Inocêncio Impissa, cabinet spokesman. The government now seeks alternative funding to prevent total collapse of health systems.

Topics: US Agency for International Development (USAID) trump administration Nigeria

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