In northern Cameroon, nine-month-old Mohamad died of malaria after suffering from a high fever for three days — a tragedy that local health officials say reflects a sharp rise in malaria fatalities following U.S. foreign aid cuts.
According to Reuters, the United States had supported Cameroon’s malaria response for nearly a decade, funding over 2,000 community health workers who regularly traveled to remote villages to diagnose and treat malaria cases early. However, since the withdrawal of U.S. aid, many of these health workers have stopped operating.
At the health center where Mohamad was taken, staff had no injectable artesunate, the life-saving drug for severe malaria that was previously supplied through U.S. funding.
Health workers and doctors interviewed by Reuters said the sudden cuts have led to delayed diagnoses, medication shortages, and increasing deaths, particularly among children in poor rural areas.
Mohamad’s father, Alhadji Madou Goni, a sorghum and banana farmer, expressed his grief and hope for renewed assistance:
“I feel so sad about my loss. I hope no one suffers from this (malaria) again. Since there is hardship here, and people don’t have the means, we hope aid comes.”
The situation underscores how foreign aid reductions can have immediate and devastating impacts on vulnerable communities, reversing years of progress in the fight against malaria — a disease that remains one of Africa’s leading causes of child mortality.
