Trump’s foreign aid cuts could lead to half a million AIDS deaths in South Africa

United Nations, March 4 (RHC)-- United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the Trump administration to reverse its sweeping cuts to international humanitarian programs, saying it will make the world “less healthy, less safe and less prosperous.”

Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The consequences will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world.”

South Africa is one nation that could be particularly hard hit by Trump’s foreign aid cuts.  An official at the Desmond Tutu HIV Center is warning the funding cuts to HIV projects could lead to 500,000 deaths in South Africa over the next 10 years. 

Meanwhile, an adviser to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said Trump’s halt to foreign aid amounts to a “death sentence for mothers and children.”

In related news, a high-ranking official at USAID has been placed on leave after warning in a memo that the administration has failed to protect programs that deliver lifesaving assistance despite a promise of waivers by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Nick Enrich, USAID’s acting assistant administrator for global health, had written in a memo: “This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale.”

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]