By Aaron Ross
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Eight people infected by cholera in South Sudan including five children died on a three-hour walk to seek medical treatment after U.S. aid cuts forced local health services to close, the UK-based charity Save the Children said on Wednesday.
The deaths last month are among the first to be directly attributed to cuts imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump after entering office on January 20.
The U.S. administration said it froze aid to review whether grants were aligned with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Experts have warned that the cuts – including the cancellation of more than 90% of USAID’s contracts – could cost millions of lives in the coming years due to malnutrition, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Save the Children supported 27 health facilities in eastern South Sudan’s Jonglei State until earlier this year when the U.S. cuts forced seven to shut completely and 20 to partially close, the organisation said in a statement.
U.S. funded transport services to take people to hospital in the main local town have also ceased for lack of funds, which obliged the eight individuals to walk in nearly 40°C (104°F) heat to seek treatment at the nearest health facility, it said.
Three of the children were under the age of 5, said Christopher Nyamandi, Save the Children’s country director in South Sudan.
“There should be global moral outrage that the decisions made by powerful people in other countries have led to child deaths in just a matter of weeks,” Nyamandi said.
Besides the U.S. cuts, more gradual reductions by other donors have strained the humanitarian response in South Sudan. Save the Children expects to spend $30 million in the country in 2025, down from $50 million last year, Nyamandi said.
Over a third of South Sudan’s roughly 12 million people have been displaced by either conflict or natural disaster, and the United Nations says the country could be on the brink of a new civil war after fighting broke out in February in the northeast.
A cholera outbreak was declared last October. More than 22,000 cases had been recorded as of last month, causing hundreds of deaths, the World Health Organization has said.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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