The USA will send food to the 13 poorest countries in the world

The US Department of State announced that it has prepared over 1.2 thousand. tons of ready for food consumption and ingredients for the production of additional 11.2 thousand. tons of food for almost a million children suffering from serious malnutrition. Help will go to 13 countries around the world, including 12 in Africa.

The decision to provide this help was made at the end of the past week, a month after the United States Agency closed for international development (USAID). It will go to Haiti, as well as to: Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Madagascar, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibuti, Kenya and Chad.

This initiative appeared at a time when many African countries experience serious food crises caused by drought, floods and conflicts. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2024, more than one in five people in Africa, i.e. 307 million people, was chronically malnourished, which means that hunger on the continent is now more common than 20 years ago.

The USAID, existing since 1961, accused by the administration of Donald Trump of waste and closed by it, only in 2024 spent about $ 12.7 billion on help for Sub -Saharan African countries. This assistance was allocated to support the fight programs with AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and saving millions of dignity children.

In many African countries, however, there were serious abuses. The medicines that were to go to the needy free of charge went to private pharmacies, where they were sold at prices higher than in Western European countries. This investigation has proved by the American diplomatic services during the administration of the previous President Joe Biden.

In Zambia, the scale of theft that has been going on for years caused the US to suspend the previously approved help at health programs of $ 50 million a year. In Liberia, it turned out that over 90 percent were sold in pharmacies. Drugs transferred by USAID. In Ethiopia, despite the serious threat of hunger defeat, in 2023 all the food aid was suspended, when it turned out that thousands of tons of free rice sold for free the army sold on the black market.

These investigations also showed a lack of sufficient control over the projects paid by the American taxpayer. In several West African countries, it was revealed that women who receive grants for actions to stop the traditional mutilation of girls themselves were responsible for these practices.

From Monrovia Tadeusz Brzozowski (PAP)

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