US to Give $638 Million in Aid to African Countries

The United States government announced over the weekend that the country will donate $638 million in aid to Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan, as well as Yemen in the Middle East.

The announcement was made on Saturday when US President, Donald Trump attended the G20 Summit in Germany.

The United Nations have made several appeals to Europe, the UK and the US to send aid to these four countries. The UN has said that these countries are experiencing the ‘worst humanitarian crises’ in over 70 years.

Ongoing conflict, drought and the spread of disease has wreaked havoc in these four countries.

Nigeria has been battling the insurgency of ISIS-linked terrorist group, Boko Haram, for the past eight years. The ongoing conflict between the terrorist group and the Nigerian military has left millions of people displaced, on the brink of starvation, and in extreme poverty.

The ongoing civil war and violence in South Sudan has led famine and the spread of various diseases across the country.

Somalia has been hit by a severe drought, which has lead to famine, and has left more than six million people in desperate need of food aid.

Yemen is currently battling the world’s largest outbreak of Cholera, while also suffering from the ongoing fighting in the country.

The new American director for the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) has called the aid donation from the US a ‘truly life-saving gift’ and thanked the US and President Trump for the contribution.

The WFP said in a tweet that the donation “comes just as families face the time of year when food stocks run out”.

While the donation from the US may be big, bringing their total aid donation for this fiscal year to $1.8 billion, there is still a chance that aid from the US may be cut going forward.

Trump has proposed deep cuts to the US foreign aid policy, saying that he wants to cut funding by at least 30%. These proposed cuts have caused a lot of concern for the UN and other humanitarian agencies, as the US is currently the world’s largest humanitarian donor.