USAID workers based in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, tell a harrowing story of how Trump’s attack on the agency complicated an escape.
Jan. 28 began as a normal day for “Marcus Doe,” an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He boarded a shuttle, bound for his desk at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa. His children got on their school bus heading a different direction.
Within hours, everything changed.
Violent political demonstrations erupted and protesters attacked the U.S. Embassy. By the end of the day, most staff were told to evacuate.
But just how they would get back to the United States was unclear:The White House had frozen foreign aid spending about a weekearlier and put senior USAID leaders on leave. The agency had stopped paying for employee travel. MORE