Mercy Corps: US Aid Cuts Will Cost Lives

February 28, 2025

The U.S. Government’s actions in the past 48 hours to end nearly 10,000 foreign assistance grants and contracts will leave millions of people globally without access to life-saving and life-sustaining support and services, including food, water, shelter, medicine and disaster relief.  

Mercy Corps has so far received terminations for 41 programs, of which nine had previously been identified by the U.S. State Department as ‘lifesaving’ and able to continue. In total, the terminated programs had the potential to reach nearly 5 million people this year with vital services including emergency food assistance, clean drinking water and access to shelter.  

Mercy Corps Chief Executive Officer Tjada D’Oyen McKenna says, 

“The U.S. Government’s decision to end thousands of aid programs will have devastating consequences for people in urgent need of food, clean water and shelter in Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It will stop programs that help prevent youth radicalization by violent extremist groups in West Africa, and stop assistance to help Venezuelan refugees who fled to Colombia. These programs not only saved lives, they prevented conflict and instability, and helped communities recover from crisis, reducing long-term reliance on aid. Ending these programs so suddenly will be destabilizing and have devastating consequences for trust in the communities that relied on them. We urge the U.S. Government to urgently revisit these decisions and immediately resume essential foreign assistance programs.”   

Mercy Corps programs now terminated by the U.S. Government include:  

  • In Ethiopia, where more than 32,800 children will no longer receive life-saving emergency nutrition services.
  • In Nigeria, where more than 59,000 people are losing access to clean water, 60,000 people are losing access to food assistance, and over 55,000 children and 11,000 women at high risk of malnutrition are losing access to specialized nutrition support.
  • In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 200,000 people will lose consistent and safe access to clean drinking water and sanitation.  
  • In Syria, where 118,000 conflict-affected people living in and near displacement camps will lose access to life-sustaining water, sanitation and hygiene services and more than 3,000 people will lose access to emergency cash to buy food.
  • In Kenya, where over 600,000 vulnerable people living in areas plagued by drought and persistent acute malnutrition will lose access to life-saving food and nutrition support.  
  • In Colombia, where 11,550 Venezuelan refugees will no longer receive the cash assistance they relied on to meet urgent needs such as food and rent for shelter, and to build a new life. 

  • In Liberia, where nearly 25,000 children are losing access to meals in schools. This food for hungry children across 146 schools is now spoiling. Children are leaving school before recess due to hunger, and school enrollment is already dropping as a result. 

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For more information, please contact:  allmediarelations@mercycorps.org.