USAID workers were left abandoned and in danger of becoming victims of political violence after Elon Musk and Donald Trump‘s extreme aid budget cuts left them stranded in Africa.
A lawsuit filed by staffers who worked at the agency based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have claimed cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) left them at the mercy of looters. Employees living in Kinshasa said in sworn legal statements that they received no help when their homes were overrun by looters.
Non-emergency US government personnel living in the DRC were warned to leave the country in early January amid escalating local violence, with citizens told to “safely depart while commercial options are available” after the US embassy closed. But the situation was made much worse when USAID collapsed, and families have told how they were left in “immense emotional distress”.
A foreign service officer identified in the lawsuit as Marcus Doe said he feared for his and his family’s safety following protests that rocked Kinshasa on January 28. At the time, President Trump had issued an executive order prohibiting USAID spending “not directly approved” by the agency’s acting administrator.
Doe is quoted as saying: “I began to feel an intense sense of panic that my government might fully abandon Americans working for USAID in Kinshasa.” Employees have argued in the lawsuit that they did not receive payments that “would normally be owed to evacuated families”, and still haven’t some time following the urgent evacuation.
Mr Doe said Trump’s “unconstitutional” shutdown of USAID caused himself and his family “immense emotional distress” by leaving them without vital assistance at a critical juncture. He added: “The chaos of the Trump administration’s haphazard and extraconstitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa.”
Another employee, a foreign service officer identified as Nathan Doe, said his family’s nighttime exit from Kinshasa caused “trauma” and massive confusion as his job hung in the balance. He said:
As of the time of the filing, Nathan Doe said he hadn’t received guidance on whether he would be reimbursed for the relocation and was told that “the people who coordinate evacuations for USAID were not around” due to being put on leave.
He said: “As news of what was happening at USAID played on the headlines, and I tried to navigate work, our situation, etc, I received calls from my children asking if I still had a job and what we were going to do.
“My children were scared – not only had we just been through the trauma of being evacuated, they were scared for me, for us, that we were jobless. I am experiencing mental and physical anguish and exhaustion.”
Get email updates with the day’s biggest stories