The Trump administration plans to cut the staff of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by nearly 97 percent, Reuters reports.
According to four sources familiar with the plan to cut, only 294 agency employees will be able to keep their jobs, while more than 10,000 specialists currently work there worldwide.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed by Trump as acting head of USAID, said that the new administration intends to completely review the agency to determine whether its funding for programs is in line with international policy, since, according to him, it has spent money to the detriment of the country.
On February 2, the head of the new Office of Government Efficiency US and entrepreneur Elon Musk has called USAID a criminal organization that must die. On Monday, he announced Trump's agreement to close the agency. Moreover, according to Musk, work on this is already underway.
Last Friday, USAID announced that all directly employed staff worldwide, with a few exceptions, would be placed on administrative leave. CBS, citing its own sources, previously reported that all USAID offices abroad had been ordered to close and all staff would be recalled by Friday.