“disaster”: Trump Admin Threatens Hiv-positive Zambians If Country Doesn’t Cave To This Demand

The U.S. State Department may withhold lifesaving HIV medications from Zambia as early as May to pressure the southern African country’s government into allowing the U.S. to access to its critical minerals, according to a state department memo cited by The New York Times.

“We will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale,” the memo, created by the department’s African bureau, says. An estimated 1.3 million Zambians rely on U.S. HIV medications provided by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an HIV-prevention program that the Trump administration has illegally defunded.

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The Trump administration’s State Department has pressured countries to renegotiate their foreign aid agreements; often by requiring them to increase their own health spending. But while 24 countries have agreed so far, others (like Zimbabwe) have refused, calling the renegotiations “an intolerable infringement on sovereignty,” the Times reported.

The new agreement would provide $1 billion in health funding to Zambia over the next five years, if Zambia spends $340 million on its own domestic health spending. Additionally, the agreement would demand that Zambia give American businesses access to its mineral mines; something Zambia has previously granted to China, which is seen as a key component to developing renewable energy technologies.

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Zambia would need to agree to these conditions by May, the memo states. The State Department refused to answer the aforementioned publication’s questions “on purportedly leaked documents or on deliberative diplomatic discussions.” The Zambian government also declined to answer the publication’s questions.

“Sharp public cuts to American foreign assistance would significantly demonstrate to aid-receiving countries the seriousness of our interest in collaboration and our insistence on tangible benefits under our America First foreign policy,” the memo states.

Currently, companies and investors from the U.S., Canada, and Europe have complained that Zambian government officials give Chinese businesses mining licenses in exchange for bribes, allowing the Chinese companies to smuggle minerals without paying taxes. Zambian activists have reportedly sought to make the proposed health agreement public, as a way to highlight U.S. pressure and local corruption.

The activists are reportedly concerned about the proposed deal’s requirement that Zambia provide its citizens’ health data with the U.S. for 10 years and biological specimens collected through disease surveillance for 25 years, the Times reported, despite no promises that Zambia would benefit from any health advancements created with this information.

“If this agreement is not signed, if the funding is not here for the next five years, government has got no capacity to respond to that immediate impact,” said Julius Kachidza, a 56-year-old advocate for people living with HIV. “[A further reduction in funding] could be quite a disaster, especially to me and the majority of people living with HIV in Zambia.”

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