- U.S. humanitarian funding to Yemen has plummeted, a result of the aid cuts implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
- Patients are sometimes told they need to purchase medicines or supplies elsewhere because hospitals can’t afford to provide them.
- Health workers warn of surging disease outbreaks that could spread to other countries this year.
AL KAWD, Yemen — In the cramped examination room of this tiny village clinic, Rania Moussa lay on her side and covered her eyes with a pillow, her slight, childlike-frame belying the fact she is 13 years old. It had been days since she had [received medicine]
But the clinic, which used to give them for free, now had none to offer; and aid cuts since the U.S. froze assistance last year meant it was unlikely to get them anytime soon. Without the medication, Rania’s mother said, her daughter couldn’t do anything.
“We could get the shots before, but now none of the clinics have them, so I have to buy them from pharmacies,” said Jamilah Omar, Rania’s mother. “We can barely afford food, let alone medications.”
“You feel helpless,” said Areeda Fadhli, the 53-year-old medical assistant managing the clinic, as she shifted the pillow away to look at Rania’s face.
“Imagine your son, your daughter, fading in front of you,” she said. “How do you think that feels?”
Last year, the U.S. slashed funding for Yemen from USAID and other sources from $768 million — amounting to half of the country’s humanitarian response budget in 2024 — to $42.5 million. The result, the U.N. says, is that 453 health facilities have faced partial or imminent closure across the country, including hospitals, primary health centers and mobile clinics.
And that amount is getting only smaller: Late last year, the Trump administration announced in 2026 it would provide $2 billion to U.N. programs in 17 countries, while pointedly excluding Afghanistan and Yemen.
Administration officials brought no evidence of corruption and cited examples of waste that proved to be inaccurate, such as Trump’s assertion that $100 million was spent on condoms to the militant group Hamas in Gaza.
[The budget for disease reporting to detect epidemics is gone.]
“Now we have no reports. Zero,” the aid worker said. For example, he said, cholera cases in Yemen would appear to be fewer than last year, although suspected numbers are far larger.
In Al Kawd, Fadhli and Jamil have already detected a few cases of cholera in the village. It’s a terrifying prospect, they said, because the disease transmitted by infected water killed a few dozen people — most of them children — last year.
“Children are dying, and more children will die later this year,” he said.
