Death toll rising in Sudan after USAID cuts
USAID was one of the leading international development agencies fighting famine in Sudan. After being illegally shuttered, the death toll of the world’s largest humanitarian emergency is soaring.
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When the Trump Administration entered the White House in January, one of their first moves was to freeze U.S. foreign aid “that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.” Chaos quickly ensued across the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) —the American government’s independent agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance— as there was little guidance on what work was and wasn't allowed.
Uncertainty quickly morphed into mayhem. A team from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) breached USAID’s secure systems without security clearances. USAID security officers who intervened to protect classified and sensitive information were threatened and then placed on leave. Staff and contractors struggled to interpret conflicting directives: one enforcing the freeze and another stating lifesaving operations could continue with a waiver, though few partners were told how to obtain one.
Then-DOGE head Elon Musk soon declared USAID would be shut down, posting, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” Administration officials issued conflicting statements, some claiming USAID would close, others that it would move under the State Department. Thousands of critical staff were fired or placed on leave. And, halfway around the globe, the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe was about to get much more dangerous.
The crisis in Sudan and USAID’s response
Sudan Crisis Guide
Trying to make sense of the war in Sudan? We’ll get you up to speed in just a few minutes.
Today, Sudan is well into a third year of one of the most brutal wars in modern history. Everything has been weaponized by the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—former allies who ousted a transitional civilian government in 2019 and are now fighting for control of a nation that wants neither in charge. Both sides have blocked aid and targeted humanitarian workers, and the RSF is using mass rape as a weapon of war. Khartoum lies in ruins, as do countless other towns and villages.
This nightmare war has given way to the largest hunger, displacement, and childhood education crises in the world. Nearly 30 million Sudanese —over half of the entire country— are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with famine declared in multiple areas. The suffering is staggering, and the U.S. government has recognized that genocide is being committed.
USAID entered the fray in the early days of this crisis. Agency staff coordinated with humanitarian partners, stayed in contact with local Sudanese staff, and deployed an elite Disaster Assistance Response Team to assess needs and direct incoming aid to where it was most needed.
As the months ticked by, USAID and State Department staff worked around the clock to pry open aid routes, finally getting aid convoys into some of the hardest-hit areas. While most of the world abandoned Sudan at the outset of the war, many of the Sudanese people found a friend in the United States. In fact, last year, Americans provided nearly 50% of all humanitarian aid to Sudan, much of it delivered in sacks and boxes stamped with the USAID logo and the warm words: From the American People.
Death toll rising after USAID cuts
Now, a shocking Washington Post investigation is revealing how the shuttering of USAID is no longer just a political headline. In Sudan, aid cuts are rapidly accelerating the already unconscionable death toll. From the Post:
“While the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID this year have been felt deeply across the world, their impact in Sudan was especially deadly, according to more than two dozen Washington Post interviews with civilians, clinicians and aid officials in the capital, Khartoum, and surrounding villages. When U.S.-supported soup kitchens were forced to close, babies starved quietly, their mothers said, while older siblings died begging for food. Funding stoppages meant that critical medical supplies were never delivered, doctors said. The lack of U.S.-funded disease response teams has made it harder to contain cholera outbreaks, which are claiming the lives of those already weakened by hunger…”
Here is one story of the many families who have watched loved ones die:
Photo: USAID assistance on the Sudan/South Sudan border (Operation Broken Silence).
“In the desert outside the city of Omdurman, just to the northwest of the capital, Fatma Swak Fadul lives in a sweltering adobe slum. She used to have seven children; now she has five. For more than a year, they survived on a single daily meal from local soup kitchens. They were run by volunteers from the local Emergency Response Rooms…Last year, USAID gave the Emergency Response Rooms $12 million, which accounted for 77 percent of the soup kitchens’ funding, said Mohamed Elobaid, who manages the group’s finances. When the stop-work order came in January, Fadul said, almost all the soup kitchens in her neighborhood shut down overnight. So her children starved.
Her daughter Nada, only 18 months old, starved to death in February, she said, and was often too weak to cry. Three-year-old Omer, who loved to wrestle with his siblings and dreamed of owning a bike, lingered longer. First, his mother said, he began to lose his vision, which can be a side effect of malnutrition. Then he began asking fretfully for an absent brother. In his last days in March, he curled up on a mat, she said, begging her for porridge. ‘I told him we don’t have any wheat to make that,’ Fadul said. ‘He was suffering a lot and then he died around midnight.’ His mother wept, she recalled, then asked the neighbors to help bury him.”
Read the full Washington Post report here.
Trump Administration officials and Elon Musk have repeatedly said “no one has died” from USAID cuts. Mounting public reporting (see here, here, and here for a few more examples), anecdotal accounts from Sudan, and some of our own Sudanese partners —who have friends who used to receive USAID funding— have been saying otherwise for months. The administration previously announced that funding is being restored for urgent, life-saving work. But in many places like Sudan that still hasn’t happened. Aid workers have been let go and payment systems were destroyed by DOGE. Vulnerable communities are still without the help they desperately need.
In response to several questions from the Post, the State Department press office said it was “reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States. … We are continuing lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen other nations and our own country…Americans are the most charitable and humanitarian-minded people in the world. It’s time for other countries to step up in providing lifesaving aid.”
So far, little of that statement appears to be true.
With USAID officially shuttered, the future of American support in Sudan is still unclear.
Only Congress has the legal authority to close USAID, but that didn’t stop the Trump Administration from fully shuttering the agency on July 1, 2025. Due to the legislative branch abdicating its authority and the unnecessarily destructive manner in which USAID was closed, not only will there be more unnecessary suffering in the world in the months ahead, but more avoidable disruption in the American political and governmental systems.
For decades, USAID enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Washington. The agency made up less than 1% of the entire federal budget —barely any money in the grand scheme of things— and received praise worldwide for helping to stabilize volatile areas and supporting communities climbing out of poverty. But what the American public thinks about foreign aid has never been easy to ascertain. According to Pew Research, “For many years, Americans have had, at best, mixed views about the effectiveness and desirability of foreign assistance.”
USAID’s role in national security become much clearer in recent years. Its success in countering Russian and Chinese influence through development and humanitarian work drew the ire of both authoritarian countries, and the agency played a critical role in preventing global health threats from reaching the United States. Given USAID’s outsized impact as such a tiny amount of the federal budget and the respect the agency brought to the United States abroad, it’s fair to say that USAID is a worthwhile investment that should not have been closed, even if some reforms and tweaks would have been beneficial.
What happens now?
Operation Broken Silence does not receive government funding; we rely entirely on individuals, families, and private institutions. However, like many small nonprofits operating in countries where USAID had a presence, our work often benefited indirectly from the humanitarian and economic stability the agency helped create. Humanitarian work is incredibly complex and requires a multitude of organizations supporting local heroes to tackle difficult challenges. No single group can do it all; but, when a powerhouse like USAID is suddenly removed from the situation, everyone suffers.
Humanitarian conditions in Sudan will continue growing more dire without USAID. More deaths from starvation and preventable diseases are now locked in for the months ahead. The suffering of the Sudanese people is already unbearable. Abandoning them now is unconscionable. We urge you to stand with them in this dark hour.
Operation Broken Silence is dedicated to Sudanese communities, cultivating resilience and driving meaningful change through crowdfunded programs. Our Sudanese partners are overwhelmed with needs as war and hunger spread. By joining our global campaign Miles For Sudan or giving below, you will help them serve the most vulnerable in this time of tremendous need.
Can’t participate? Make a donation or set up a small monthly gift instead:
$1,000 - Fully funds one classroom at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp for half a semester.
$500 - Delivers food to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled to South Sudan.
$250 - Provides a daily breakfast to 10 children for an entire month in Adré refugee camp, where many Darfuri genocide survivors now live.
$100 - Supports a sexual assault counselor in the Greater El Fasher area of North Darfur.
$50 - Helps bring school supplies to students in Yida Refugee Camp.
Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900. You can also donate stock or crypto.
Operation Broken Silence a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Our EIN is 80-0671198.
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USAID was one of the leading international development agencies fighting famine in Sudan. Now that the agency has been illegally shuttered, the death toll of the world’s largest humanitarian emergency is soaring. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/death-toll-rising-in-sudan-after-usaid-cuts
While the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID this year have been felt deeply across the world, their impact in Sudan was especially deadly. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/death-toll-rising-in-sudan-after-usaid-cuts
Only Congress has the legal authority to close USAID, but that didn’t stop the Trump Administration from illegally shuttering the agency on July 1, 2025. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/death-toll-rising-in-sudan-after-usaid-cuts
Operation Broken Silence is dedicated to Sudanese communities, cultivating resilience and driving meaningful change through crowdfunded programs. Will you join us? https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/death-toll-rising-in-sudan-after-usaid-cuts
