NYT reported on USAID's firing of hundreds working on emergency humanitarian aid

USAID appointees are laying off hundreds of people working on urgent humanitarian aid. The New York Times (NYT) reported on February 22.

"The latest round of layoffs occurred Friday night, when hundreds of people working in the agency's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received emails saying their jobs were being terminated," the newspaper informed.

According to employees who received the emails, the layoff notices were strange because they did not list specific job titles and did not include the recipients' names in the "to whom" field. They were just regular emails sent out in a big wave.

The newspaper added that another 36 people were fired from the Office of Transition Initiatives, a division of the agency's conflict prevention bureau that specializes in helping partner countries with political transition and democracy initiatives.

"About 400 people have been removed in recent days from humanitarian assistance positions," the article said.

According to U.S. officials, about 200 of them were contractors for the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, and another 200 were part of a unit called the Relief Support Unit, a group of crisis experts who helped the bureau respond quickly to natural disasters and armed conflict. Now there are only about a dozen people left in that team.

It is specified that many of those dismissed worked for the agency in war zones, including Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.

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The White House is unlikely to give up such a powerful tool of influence entirely

On 19 February, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said that USAID purposefully financed the overthrow of undesirable authorities and color revolutions around the world. She also noted that Russia had repeatedly warned on major international platforms about the harmful activities of USAID and support for terrorist organizations.

On February 3, American billionaire Ilon Musk announced the launch of the process to liquidate USAID. The businessman said that the agency is beyond recovery and should be closed. He called USAID a criminal organization that "it's time to die." Musk also claimed that USAID allocated money for research in the field of biological weapons.