The silent dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by the Trump administration has already begun to cast a long and catastrophic shadow across some of the most vulnerable regions of our planet. While the world watched in disbelief, Washington took a scalpel—and at times a sledgehammer—to decades of humanitarian partnerships, transforming America’s image from a flawed but willing global responder to an indifferent bystander.
Under the guise of the “America First” doctrine, the White House is not only slashing funds—it is uprooting entire systems of international solidarity. USAID, long a cornerstone of the U.S. foreign policy arsenal, is being dissolved into the bureaucratic core of the State Department, its staff decimated, its mission neutered. This is not just policy redirection. It is strategic retreat.
And the consequences are already devastating.
In Myanmar, a country teetering between civil war and natural catastrophe, a deadly 7.7 magnitude earthquake has laid bare the moral vacuum left by the U.S. pullback. More than 3,300 people are dead. Entire neighborhoods are reduced to rubble. While Washington has offered a paltry $9 million in aid, the true toll lies not in numbers but in absence—no boots on the ground, no structured response, no meaningful engagement. By contrast, in the 2023 Turkey-Syria quake, the U.S. pledged $185 million and dispatched hundreds of relief workers. Myanmar, it seems, is now relegated to the back pages of the U.S. conscience.
In Afghanistan, the picture is equally dire. The abrupt halt of funding for World Food Programme (WFP) operations, and the shuttering of hundreds of WHO-supported clinics, has pushed a starving, war-weary population further into the abyss. Twenty-three million Afghans need humanitarian aid. Two million rely on WFP food rations that will now no longer come. The rationale? That funds might trickle to the Taliban. But blanket punishment of a population—especially women, children, and the elderly—is neither just nor strategic.
In Sudan, now entering its third year of a brutal civil war, the picture is almost apocalyptic. More than 30 million people are in need of aid. Nearly half a million have already died of hunger and disease in 2024 alone. With the U.S. pulling out, 80% of community kitchens have shut down. Refugees in Chad, already living on the brink, are now left without food, water, or hope. Once again, the U.S. has ceded moral ground.
Even in South Africa, where the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has for two decades been the world’s most successful anti-HIV initiative, the damage is palpable. Experts now warn that without sustained funding, South Africa could face an additional 565,000 HIV infections and over 600,000 deaths by 2034. Thousands of support services have been halted, and a generation of progress stands at risk.
These aren’t just numbers. They are the real, lived experiences of millions of human beings—trapped in crises not of their making, caught in the crosshairs of global geopolitics, abandoned in their hour of greatest need.
And yet, amid the wreckage, a critical question arises: Who will fill the void?
If the United States is retreating from its role as the world’s emergency responder, the onus must shift to others with the capacity and resources to help. Here, we must issue a moral and strategic challenge to the wealthier nations of the Gulf—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, and Kuwait.
These countries have benefited from decades of immense oil wealth, and many have built modern economies, world-class cities, and sophisticated diplomatic networks. But with wealth comes responsibility. It is time for the Gulf to rise to the mantle of global humanitarian leadership—not just through quiet diplomacy or symbolic donations, but through bold, coordinated, and sustained intervention in global crises.
Gulf nations, particularly those that claim leadership in the Islamic world, must now walk their talk. Islam’s teachings on compassion, zakat, and the duty to protect the vulnerable are clear and uncompromising. What greater test of faith and moral purpose than to respond to famines in Sudan, earthquakes in Myanmar, or epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa?
In 2022, Qatar showed remarkable leadership by mediating in Afghanistan and offering humanitarian aid during natural disasters. The UAE has increasingly stepped into the humanitarian space in East Africa and Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre has made strides in emergency response. But these efforts must now be scaled, systematized, and globalized. The Gulf must move beyond regional charity into international humanitarianism.
Moreover, such leadership is not only ethical—it is strategic. By filling the humanitarian gap left by the United States, Gulf countries can enhance their soft power, build alliances with Global South nations, and demonstrate that a multipolar world need not be a fractured one. If the West is faltering, the Global East and South must not fail.
Let the response to this moment of crisis become a defining chapter in Gulf leadership. Let the world say that when America turned away, others stood up. That amid despair, compassion found new champions.
For in the end, history will judge not the power we held, but the lives we saved with it.
EDITORIAL1 week ago
