Trump’s team says ‘no children’ died from USAID cuts. Consider these 3 cases
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Abdullahi Ibrahim developed asthma when he was 5. Over time, it became increasingly serious.
“Sometimes he would wake up suddenly, gasping for air,” recounts his father, Ibrahim Musa, through an interpreter. “I feel very, very scared. We usually rush him to the hospital.”
They would take the motorcycle Musa uses as a taxi driver, Abdullahi sandwiched between his parents.
Details
Those visits, plus the drugs and inhalers, were usually free, says Esther Agbo, a nurse at Mucciya Primary Health Care who often interacted with the family living in the north of Nigeria, in Sabon Gari. She says that the costs had been offset by USAID — the United States Agency for International Development.
“Because of that support,” says Musa, “people like us who don’t have much could still get treatment.”
Last year, when he was 10, Abdullahi had an especially severe asthma attack. “He told me, ‘Daddy, I can’t breathe well,'” says Musa. “He was just lying there, helpless. We rushed to the clinic.”
Analysis
He says the clinic told them the drugs were no longer free of charge. “USAID stopped supplying the treatment [for] free,” says Agbo, who was not on duty there at the time. “The cost of the medication was too much for the parents,” she says.
Abdullahi died from that final asthma attack, says his father. “If there was still help coming from USAID,” says Musa, “I’m very sure my child would still be alive today.”
In May of last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before Congress about the termination of USAID. He said, “No children are dying on my watch.”
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