The decades-old U.S. humanitarian aid agency USAID was largely dismantled in the early days of President Trump’s second term by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The authors of a new study in the journal Science conclude, “The abrupt withdrawal of USAID led to a significant and sustained increase in conflict across Africa’s most USAID-dependent regions.”
We are joined by Austin Wright, one of the study’s authors and a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago. “What we found is that that shutdown had these large effects,” says Wright. “These are often double-digit percentage increases in the incidence, severity and lethality of violence across Africa in the affected regions.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Democracy Now! | Radio Free (2026-05-21T12:33:15+00:00) Rising Conflict in DRC, Sudan, Other African Countries Linked to Trump’s Gutting of USAID: Study. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/05/21/rising-conflict-in-drc-sudan-other-african-countries-linked-to-trumps-gutting-of-usaid-study-2/
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