Eight people, including five children, have died from cholera in South Sudan after being forced to walk three hours to seek medical treatment due to US aid cuts imposed by President Donald Trump.
The cuts, aimed at aligning grants with the “America First” agenda, led to the closure of local health services, leaving these individuals without access to necessary care.
Save the Children reported that the cuts forced seven health facilities to shut completely and 20 to close partially in eastern South Sudan’s Jonglei State, where the charity had previously supported 27 health facilities.
The US State Department claims that many lifesaving aid programs in South Sudan remain active but acknowledges that support for medical services has been used to enrich the country’s leaders, refusing to ask American taxpayers to subsidize what they deem “irresponsible and corrupt behaviour” by South Sudan’s leaders.
The situation is dire, with over a third of South Sudan’s 12 million people displaced by conflict or natural disasters, and the country is on the brink of a new civil war, with a cholera outbreak declared last October, resulting in over 22,000 cases and hundreds of deaths.
Experts warn that the cuts could have devastating consequences, and the global community is urged to take moral outrage at the child deaths resulting from these decisions.
