US Secretary of State says most USAID programs to be canceled

WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that more than 80 percent of the programs sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would be canceled.

After a 6-week review, the Trump administration is "officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID", Rubio wrote in a post on the social platform X.

He said the 5,200 contracts spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, and in some cases even harmed, the core national interests of the United States.

US President Donald Trump said last month that there was "tremendous fraud" in the use of USAID funds at "unprecedented levels of corruption" and demanded that it be shut down. Trump administration is ending nearly all foreign assistance programs operated by USAID.

On Feb 4, the official website of USAID issued a notice that said all directly employed personnel worldwide would be placed on "administrative leave", with a few designated individuals as exceptions.

According to previous reports from US media, the Trump administration's goal was to reduce USAID's global workforce from over 10,000 to fewer than 300, a reduction of 97 percent.

USAID, an agency of the US government responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, is a key target for government reform by the Department of Government Efficiency. Some countries have accused the agency of being a US tool to fuel civil unrest.