The United States is restructuring how it delivers life-saving medical supplies for HIV and malaria to low-income countries, a shift that officials and health experts warn could disrupt treatment access across parts of Africa and Asia.

The changes centre on winding down the Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management, a U.S.-funded initiative run by Chemonics, which has coordinated the delivery of critical medicines and prevention tools since 2016. According to internal communications and multiple sources familiar with the matter, U.S. officials have been instructed to begin halting implementation of the programme by May 30.

From its inception through 2024, the programme distributed more than $5 billion worth of HIV and malaria-related commodities to 90 countries, with a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. The supplies included antiretroviral drugs, malaria treatments and insecticide-treated bed nets, forming a key component of global disease control efforts.The restructuring follows broader changes to U.S.

foreign aid policy under the administration of Donald Trump, which has prioritised reducing reliance on contractors, cutting budgets and shifting toward direct agreements with recipient governments. The overhaul also comes after the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, which had previously overseen much of Washington’s development assistance.

Five sources familiar with the transition said the pace of the changes risks creating supply gaps for essential medicines, particularly in countries with fragile health systems. An internal email reviewed by Reuters warned that accelerating the transition without a clear implementation plan could jeopardise continuity of services.

The communication, sent by the U.S. State Department to staff in 17 African countries and Haiti, directed country teams to prepare for the end of programme operations while outlining potential risks. It did not provide a detailed roadmap for replacement mechanisms, instead asking local offices to identify vulnerabilities and report back to Washington.

A State Department spokesperson said the agency had not issued technical instructions for Chemonics to cease operations by May 30, though the contract is set to expire on September 30 in line with other USAID awards. The official end date is listed as November.

The uncertainty has revived concerns stemming from earlier disruptions. In January last year, a freeze on international aid left millions of dollars’ worth of medical supplies stranded in ports and warehouses worldwide, including HIV drugs and malaria prevention tools. Distribution resumed only after waivers were granted for life-saving interventions.

Six sources said the United States has been in discussions with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria about potentially using its procurement and distribution systems to replace the existing programme. The Geneva-based institution already manages approximately $2 billion in annual purchases for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programmes through partnerships with national governments and implementing agencies.

However, two sources said earlier plans had envisaged a transition timeline extending to November 2027, allowing sufficient time for procurement cycles and logistical adjustments. Compressing this timeline into a matter of months could create operational bottlenecks, they said, noting that delivering medical supplies to remote areas can take up to a year from order to distribution.

The Global Fund declined to comment on the discussions. The State Department did not directly confirm the talks but said it would rely on pooled procurement mechanisms to secure supplies at competitive prices from private manufacturers.The policy shift is part of a broader “America First” approach to global health funding, which aims to reduce what officials describe as inefficiencies in the existing system.

A strategy document released in September argued that contractor-led programmes had contributed to waste and inflated costs, and emphasised direct funding for frontline services and national governments.

Under the new approach, Washington has signed 28 bilateral health agreements with partner countries and is increasingly channeling funds directly to national authorities. It also plans to use private logistics firms to handle distribution rather than relying on large development contractors.

Recent agreements with countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda include commitments to increase domestic health spending alongside U.S. funding. However, implementation has encountered obstacles. In Kenya, a proposed deal faces legal challenges from activists concerned about data privacy, while negotiations with Zambia have been delayed as officials seek to safeguard national interests.

Health experts and aid practitioners say the transition risks compounding existing vulnerabilities in global disease control programmes. Previous disruptions linked to funding changes have already contributed to shortages of malaria treatments for children and gaps in HIV prevention services in several countries.

The State Department defended the overhaul, describing the current system as outdated and inefficient. A spokesperson said the new model would prioritise value for American taxpayers while maintaining support for critical health interventions.

Despite those assurances, several sources involved in programme delivery said the lack of a detailed transition plan remains a central concern. They warned that without clear coordination between donors, governments and implementing partners, the shift could interrupt supply chains that millions depend on for survival.

The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces it is fighting have received multiple international mediation offers, but none have succeeded in ending or even significantly pausing the fighting that broke out on April 15.

Earlier this month, IGAD, an East African regional bloc of which Kenya is a member, proposed an initiative that would include the deployment of peacekeepers in the capital Khartoum.

The Sudanese army has repeatedly rejected the Kenyan-led initiative, accusing the regional power of supporting the RSF.

It has said it would consider any foreign peacekeepers as enemy forces.

“Leave the East African forces where they are. Bring the Kenyan army … I swear to god, not one of them would make it back,” said Sudanese General Yassir al-Atta in comments to troops.

He also accused Kenya of being bought off by a third country, which he did not identify.

“This statement is unworthy of our comment,” Kenya’s foreign affairs principal secretary Korir Sing’Oei said. The accusations were unfounded, he said, and that his country was neutral.

“By insisting that durable peace will only be realised through the inclusion of civilian actors in any mediation process and calling on accountability for atrocities, some in Sudan may find these principles difficult to accept,” he added.

The fighting in Khartoum State continued on Monday. A neighbourhood committee in Ombada said at least 15 people had been killed in strikes in Omdurman.

In the Kalakla area in southern Khartoum, the local committee said that RSF forces had besieged the area.

This week’s visit by Brian Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to host African leaders in St. Petersburg on Thursday and Friday and promises them free Russian grain “to replace Ukrainian grain.”

“He will highlight the exemptions in U.S. sanctions that have always allowed the continued flow of food and agriculture transactions,” the Treasury spokesperson added of Nelson’s trip, first reported by Reuters.

Nelson’s second trip to Africa as undersecretary and his first to East Africa follows visits by several senior Biden administration officials to the continent this year after President Joe Biden pledged in December that the U.S. was “all in” on Africa’s future.

While in Nairobi and Somalia’s capital Mogadishu from Monday to Saturday, Nelson will discuss strengthening anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism frameworks as Treasury looks to strengthen capacity across the continent.

Enhancing partnerships to address regional security, including to combat the Islamic State and al Shabaab militant groups, will also be a focus, the spokesperson said.

Nelson will discuss ways to work with governments on combating illicit financial flows associated with crises in the region such as in Sudan, according to the spokesperson, where over 1,100 people have been killed and more than 3 million uprooted since fighting broke out in April.

Black Sea Grain Deal

Russia quit the deal allowing Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain last week, saying that demands to improve its own food and fertilizer exports had not been met, and that not enough Ukraine grain had reached the poorest countries under the Black Sea deal.

Since Russia quit the deal and began attacking Ukrainian food-exporting ports on the Black Sea and Danube river, global wheat and corn futures prices have risen sharply.

The Black Sea grain deal was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey a year ago to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.

Somalia received 84,000 tonnes of wheat from Ukraine in 2022, up from 31,000 tonnes in 2021, according to U.N. trade data, as donors stepped up assistance to fend off a looming famine in certain areas.

Famine in parts of the Horn of Africa was averted this year as the rainy season, projected to fail for a fifth consecutive year, beat expectations. But aid officials say some 60 million people are still food insecure in seven east African countries and worry about the impact of a further blow.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to sharp Western sanctions, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.

African nations have largely remained neutral on the Ukraine war.

Raisi’s trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling U.S. sanctions.

Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.

Raisi was welcomed by an honour guard at Kenya’s presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya’s presidency showed.

His trip to Kenya, East Africa’s economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an “opportunity to review and re-energise their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries,” Kenya’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.

The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

The auction in Nairobi will be conducted by the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC), which was founded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Saudi Tawadul Group.

The certified credits that are sold will fund either projects that avoid emissions by using sustainable technologies or remove carbon from the atmosphere, RVCMC said in a statement, without naming the specific companies that will participate.

“This includes the supply of improved clean cookstoves to communities in Kenya and Rwanda and renewable energy projects in Egypt and South Africa,” it said.

Critics of carbon markets have in the past cited concerns including poor transparency, a limited supply of credits and questions over the quality of projects.

RVCMC held its first auction in Riyadh last October, where 1.4 million tonnes of carbon credits were sold.

Nairobi was chosen to host the second event to showcase the potential of voluntary carbon markets in attracting investments into frontier economies, RVCMC said.

The World Bank said last week that Kenya could turn the threat it faces from climate change into an opportunity by courting green investments from international investors.

The East African nation contributes less than 1% of the annual global greenhouse gases emissions, the bank said, offering it opportunities to increase offerings of carbon credits.

Nairobi (AP) — A court in Kenya on Friday gave police five more days to hold a pastor facing possible terror-related charges in the deaths of more than 100 his congregants, many of whom are believed to have starved to death.

Police rescued 15 emaciated parishioners from the 800-acre Kilifi County property of Paul Mackenzie last month. Four of them died after the group was taken to a hospital, and survivors told investigators the pastor had instructed them to fast to death before the world ends so they could meet Jesus.

A search of Mackenzie’s property, located in a remote forested area, found more than 100 bodies and dozens of mass graves dug out, authorities have said. Autopsies on the bodies were ongoing, but completed ones showed some of the buried people had died of starvation, strangulation or suffocation.

Mackenzie was arrested two weeks ago for alleged links to cultism. A lower court freed him this week but he was rearrested and presented to a higher court. Police have said their investigations pointed to signs of radicalization.

The court that ordered Mackenzie held for five more days is considering an application for a further 90-day detention.

The pastor was arrested twice before — in 2019 and in March of this year — in connection with the deaths of children. He was released on bond both times, and those cases are still proceeding through the court system.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday formed a committee of inquiry into the deaths.

Ruto tasked the committee with establishing the circumstances under which people died and identifying other individuals and organizations that may bear responsibility and making recommendations.

The country’s broadcast regulator, the Kenya Film and Classification Board, sounded the alarm in 2017 on content televised by Mackenzie that might promote radicalization. The board’s former chairperson, Ezekiel Mutua, told local media that the content was taken off the air and law enforcement agencies were notified.

Another pastor in the same county, Ezekiel Odero, was arrested last week in connection with the deaths of congregants at his coastal megachurch. On Thursday, a court said Odero could be released from jail if he posted a bond in the amount of 3 million Kenyan shillings (about $22,000) or cash bail of 1.5 million shillings ($11,000).

Odero’s lawyers acknowledged after his arrest that 15 people died at his church but said the deaths were reported at a police station as required by law. Police have said there was no evidence at the time to suggest a crime was involved.

The pastor remains under investigation for his ties to Mackenzie, from whom he bought a television channel in 2019.

Kenya’s national communications authority last week suspended Odero’s TV channel for airing inappropriate content on exorcism during hours when adult programming is not allowed. (

The scheme to distribute dates and Iftar was launched by the Saudi Embassy in Kenya’s religious attache, and Nasser bin Mohammed Al-Faridi, the Saudi Deputy Ambassador to the nation, was there.

Al-Faridi thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their support of the ministry’s work on behalf of Muslims around the world, particularly during the fast-month of Ramadan.

A total of 10 tonnes of dates will be distributed, and more than 15,000 Muslims will participate in the Iftar event.

The Iftar project was also started by the Islamic Higher Institute in the Senegalese province of Louga.

Sheikh Wahid bin Mohammed Majribi, the religious attache at the Saudi Embassy in Senegal, applauded the Kingdom’s government for supporting Islam and Muslims and the ministry’s careful selection of programme participants.

Ministry tweeted that, “In implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the ministry has started sending the fourth batch of gift amounting to 32,700 copies of the Holy Quran in various sizes, and translations of the Holy Quran from the publications of King Fahd Complex for Printing Quran to the Republic of Kenya, bringing a total of 59,450 copies”.

In April 2021, Kingdom began shipping 1.2 million copies of the Holy Quran in various sizes and 21 languages to 29 countries around the world as part of Custodian of Two Holy Mosques’ gifts program.

King Fahd Complex produces about 10 million copies a year, and it has published 55 different translations of the Quran in 39 languages. The complex has made over 128 million books of the Quran since 1985, which is fully accepted by all sects of Islam.

Saudi Arabia is revered in the Muslim world for its incredible services in promoting the message of Quran and Prophetic Hadiths, and the moderate principles of Islam.

After Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as a crown prince, Kingdom has been relentlessly working to protect the values of Islam by promoting moderation and mutual coexistence, against extremism and terrorism.