Thousands protest USAid workers being recalled from abroad or put on leave

News comes after nearly a thousand contractors laid off or furloughed, and USAid website and X account removed

Thousands gathered at the US Capitol on Wednesday after the shock announcement on Tuesday evening that the US Agency for International Development (USAid) was putting nearly all of its employees on leave and recalling thousands of officers from their postings abroad.

The news came only days after nearly a thousand contractors were laid off or furloughed, the USAid website was taken down, and its X account was deleted.

Protesters gathered near the Capitol under chilly, overcast skies and chanted: “Let us work!” and “USAid! USAid!”

We are in a very, very dire place,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a top USAid health official under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, told the crowd. “The attempt to kill USAid will kill people.”

Competitors such as Russia and China were cheering this decision, he added.

His voice rose as he addressed members of Congress in the halls behind him – especially lawmakers, he said, who had supported the agency and its work for years.

You know that what is being said about USAid is not true,” Konyndyk said. “Speak up! Where are you?”

“This is a dictatorship in the making,” Ed Markey, a senator from Massachusetts, told the crowd. “This is an example” of what the Trump administration can do to agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he said.

“We are the moral force of the world,” Markey said. “The only way to take back our government is to take to the streets by the millions to demand justice, not just for our country but for people around the world.”