FARCHANA, CHAD – Following recent cuts in U.S. foreign aid, communities in Africa housing refugees and vulnerable populations are feeling a severe impact. Health centers struggle to provide life-saving services, schools are closing, and essential survival programs are in jeopardy.
CBN News traveled to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert to see the devastating effect on those who have counted on America to keep them alive.
On a rough and bumpy Sahara Desert road, a convoy pushes forward. We journeyed west from the Chad-Sudan border to Farchana, home to nearly 200,000 people, including 60,000 refugees escaping Sudan’s brutal civil war.
At the Farchana Health Center, we met Dr. Albachir Mahamat, a once hopeful caregiver, who now struggles against overwhelming despair.
“The impact of the financial cuts from the American government have been huge because it affects all of our services,” Dr. Mahamat told CBN News.
He explains the clinic, designed for 10,000, now serves six times that number. Weeks ago, he learned about the loss of USAID funding which had been a lifeline for women and children struggling with malnutrition.
“We have had to reduce the number of personnel which means a greater workload,” Mahamat said. “My big worry is that if these services are no longer available, then these children will not survive.”
The clinic’s operations are supported by World Vision, a Christian aid organization that recently helped bring fresh water and electricity to the health center—all thanks to private donations. Now World Vision is deeply concerned about the future here.
“The U.S. has been a leader in the world for many years in terms of helping the poor and serving the most vulnerable,” said World Vision’s Margaret Schuler. “Any administration should be able to take time to review their programs, but the challenge is when those programs are suspended: food support, vaccinations for kids, support for malnourished children, all these activities are critically needed.”
At a nearby refugee school for Sudanese children, we met Abdul Rashid teaching English to young Sudanese children. One of the things that concerns him a lot is the fact that today the United States is cutting funding to this school, and it has already had a big impact on the students.
For several years, USAID paid for an accelerated program for the camp’s brightest students. When the Trump administration slashed 90% of the organization’s global foreign contracts, that support vanished.
“When the accelerated program got cut, most of the students left the school and headed to Libya, some went to Europe, others died at sea trying to cross the Mediterranean,” said Rashid, who is the principal of the refugee camp school. “Some were even kidnapped by the RSF and forced to fight. That’s why the decision to stop the USAID funding is so upsetting.”
Schuler says America’s help has played a crucial role in fighting poverty and hunger around the world, and that support has been a cornerstone of the nation’s soft power.
“I think it’s critical that the U.S. government continue to be out in the world and doing good things for populations in need,” argued Schuler. “It makes us all safer, more secure, and more prosperous.”
For millions on this continent, U.S. intervention has meant the difference between life and death. For people like Florence Makumene, the support through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, saved her life when she was diagnosed with HIV.
“The departure of donors and donor funding is a major setback,” said the PEPFAR funding recipient. “We are like orphans. We have no one to turn to. All the gains are being reversed, we are going back to the old days when being HIV positive was equated to death.”
As PEPFAR teeters on the edge, fears of a deadly reversal are growing. “If the U.S. assistance for HIV is not restored and is not replaced by other fundings, there will be an additional, in the next four years, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths,” warned Winnie Byanyima with UNAIDS.
Food assistance, too, is on the brink of collapse.
“We are afraid for our lives. Those who are strong may manage to work, but the rest of us will suffer in silence,” said Haile Tsige, a refugee from Ethiopia.
Tsige, one of nearly three million Ethiopians in the Tigray region depending on U.S. aid, now faces a devastating reality: no food for the next three months.
Ethiopia, once the largest recipient in sub-Saharan Africa, has now seen all support stopped. “Going without nourishment for even one day is difficult, much less for 90 days. Consequently, we fear that we are destined for death,” said Tsige.
Some leading evangelical leaders insist America has a moral and spiritual obligation to care for the worlds vulnerable.
“We are all for good stewardship, but we have to remember that if we begin to cut and slash indiscriminately, these are men, women and children created in the image and likeness of God,” Rev. Gabriel Salguero, with National Latino Evangelical Coalition, told CBN News.
Rev. Salguero, a missionary to Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi, has seen firsthand the impact of U.S. support. He is one of the few evangelical voices challenging the Trump administration’s decision to slash foreign aid.
“As a pastor, I take seriously the call of Jesus, ‘I was hungry, and you fed me; naked and you clothed me, I was stranger, and you welcomed me.’ I think Jesus was being serious and part of the work of USAID was collaborating with Christian organizations and others, to provide this very real ministry of Christ of mercy, compassion, and humanitarian assistance,” Salguero told CBN News.
Back at the refugee camp, Abdul Rashid shares a warning about the future.
“Since there’s no hope of getting an education here, many students are trying to migrate to Europe and America. Not everyone who wants to go there is a good person with good intentions,” warned Rashid. “I guarantee there will be problems, and this crisis could turn into a security problem, and it will end up costing the West more than what it would cost them to fund the education here in the camp.”
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