Dikwa, Nigeria – Under the wet light of a thatched roof refuge, Yagana Bulama rocks her surviving baby. The other twin left, a victim of malnutrition and the international financing cuts that slam the rescue buoy of the communities displaced in the state of Borno by the insurrection of the Nigeria.
“Food is seriously difficult,” said Bulama, 40, who was a farmer before Boko Haram activists left in her village, forcing her to flee. She and around 400,000 other people at the Dikwa humanitarian center – practically the entire population – are counting on aid. The army limits their movements to an “security zone”, which seriously limits agriculture.
For years, the United States agency for international development had been the backbone of humanitarian response in northeast Nigeria, helping non-governmental organizations provide food, shelter and health care to millions of people. But this year, the Trump Administration Coup More than 90% of foreign aid contracts in USAID and $ 60 billion in global aid worldwide.
The programs at the service of children were hardly affected.
Bulama has already lost young people tripled because of hunger before reaching therapeutic food centers in Dikwa. When she gave birth to twins last August, the two were seriously insufficient. Mercy body workers have enrolled them in a program to receive a dense caloric paste used to treat severe acute malnutrition.
But in February, Mercy Corps suddenly ended the program which was entirely funded by USAID. Two weeks later, one of the twins died, said Bulama.
She has no tears, only dreading what could come.
“I don't want to bury another child,” she said.
Globally, 50% of therapeutic foods for the treatment of malnutrition in children were financed by USAID, and 40% of supplies were product in the United States., According to Shawn Baker, program director at Helen Keller Intl and former USAID chief nutritionist.
He said the consequence could be 1 million children not receiving treatment for severe malnutrition, resulting in 163,500 additional deaths per year. For Helen Keller Intl, its programs in Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria were interrupted.
“It is very traumatic,” said Trond Jensen, head of the United Nations humanitarian office in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, financing cuts, noting that other donors, including the European Union, have taken similar measures this year. “One of the things is the threat to children's lives.”
UNICEF always manages a nearby therapeutic food center, which now supports the Bulama surviving baby, but its capacity is stretched. This reflects many people previously served by other aid groups that have withdrawn due to financing cuts.
Intersos, an Italian humanitarian organization, has the only establishment remaining which provides hospital services for malnutrition in Dikwa, dealing with the most perilous cases. His workers say they are overwhelmed, with at least 10 new admissions of seriously unhappy children.
“Before the USAID Cup, we made a lot of progress,” said Ayuba Kauji, a supervisor of health and nutrition. “Now my biggest concern is high mortality. We don't have enough resources to follow. “
Intersos was forced to reduce their staff from 30 to 11 in Dikwa after the USAID freeze. Its nutrition and health establishments now operate solely on the support of the Nigerian humanitarian fund, a small pot of money brought by a few European countries. This funding will be completed in June.
The crisis is just as acute in Maiduguri, where the economy is in shock from the massive end of humanitarian workers. In another establishment managed by Intersos, 10 of the 12 doctors left and four nurses remain, with 50 new admissions of malnutric children per week.
“It was much less,” said Emmanuel Ali, one of the remaining doctors.
The effects of financing cuts extend far beyond nutrition. At the reception center of the international organization for migration in Dikwa, thousands of displaced families and those who escape the captivity of Boko Haram are blocked. There are no new shelters under construction and no support for relocation.
“Previously, organizations like Mercy Corps have built mud brick houses and rehabilitated shelters damaged to absorb people from the IOM reception center,” said a center official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Now it stopped.”
Jensen, the United Nations humanitarian head in Maiduguri, said: “Unfortunately, we do not see additional funding to compensate for the American cuts.” He warned that vulnerable people could turn to ways to face risks, including joining violent groups.
The crisis in Nigeria is part of a larger calculation. According to Kate Phillips-Barrasso, the vice-president of politicians and the advocacy of Mercy Corps, 40 of its 62 programs financed by the United States with the potential to reach 3.5 million people in Nigeria, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon and Gaza.
In Mozambique, where jihadist violence in the North has moved more than a million people since 2017, humanitarian organizations have faced large gaps with “devastating” effects on the needy, said Frederico João, president of the NGO forum in the region.
More broadly, the USAID funding cut compromises the Mozambique health sector, in particular in HIV / AIDS care, said inocêncio Impissa, firm spokesperson. The government is now seeking alternative funding to prevent the total collapse of health systems.
Charles Mangwiro in Maputo, Mozambique, contributed to this story.
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