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The Trump‑blocked contraceptives that never reached Kenya: “I am not ready to have another baby”

7 June 2026 at 05:00

In a huge warehouse in Geel, Belgium, $9.7 million in contraceptives have been locked up since early 2025. Some 77% of the shipment from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was destined for about 10 African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali. But when Donald Trump’s administration dismantled the world’s largest development aid organization, these medicines were left stranded, destined either to be destroyed or to expire box by box. About 5,800 miles south of Belgium, in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Jane Anyongo, Violet Mosomi, Salma Kamau, and hundreds of thousands of women are still waiting for their pills, condoms, subdermal implants, intrauterine devices, and other sexual and reproductive health supplies.

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© Diego Menjíbar

Salma* (32, Nairobi) is another woman affected by the shortage of contraceptives in Kenya. She wants to switch to a copper IUD, but there isn’t enough stock at the Njiru health center.

© Diego Menjíbar

A copper IUD donated by USAID. This is one of the last remaining units at the Njiru health center.

© Diego Menjíbar

Jadelle, a contraceptive implant donated by USAID. This is one of the last remaining units at the Njiru health center.

© Diego Menjíbar

Mirena, a hormonal intrauterine device.

© Diego Menjíbar

One of the hallways at the Njiru health center in Nairobi on May 8, 2026.

© Diego Menjíbar

One of the murals featuring the USAID logo is still on one of the walls at the Njiru health center.

© Diego Menjíbar

The maternity ward at the Njiru health center.

© Diego Menjíbar

The family planning office at the Njiru health center in Nairobi on May 8, 2026.

Hungry elephants displaced by the climate crisis with farmers for food in Zambia: ‘They ate the maize the whole night’

6 June 2026 at 05:00
A herd of elephants crosses the Mosi-oa-Tunya road, which leads to Victoria Falls, to return to the national park after raiding maize fields at the Livingstone West camp in February 2026.

Veronica Akabondo had worked from dawn to dusk for months on her farm in southern Zambia and was confident she would have a plentiful maize harvest. But one morning she woke up and found it all gone. The culprit? A herd of hungry elephants.

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Tom Fletcher, UN humanitarian chief: 'Cuts force us to choose which lives to save and which lives not to'

A few months ago, at a center for malnourished children in the remote Darfur region of Sudan, an orphaned baby who had arrived days earlier on the brink of death gripped Tom Fletcher’s finger with surprising strength. The United Nations’ humanitarian chief says those seconds eased his frustration at international inaction and the “anger” he feels over cuts to aid at a time when needs and conflicts are rising around the world.

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Tom Fletcher, head of OCHA, on a Madrid street this Wednesday.

© Álvaro García

Tom Fletcher, U.N. humanitarian chief, in Madrid on Wednesday.
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