(8 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia – 15 June 2025
1. Wide view of Monrovia
2. Various of streets in downtown Monrovia
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia – 15 June 2025
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dehpue Y. Zuo, Liberia’s deputy finance minister: ++STARTS ON SHOT 2++
“There should have been a transition. We know the government, the United States has its own right to make the decision, but at the same time, under our diplomacy and multilateralism, it’s sometimes good to look and have some conversation.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bong County, Liberia – 13 June 2025
4. Wide of road in village
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bong County, Liberia – 14 June 2025
5. Farmer, Roseline Phay, with her daughter Pauline exiting home
6. Various of Phay and her daughter
7. SOUNDBITE (Pidgin English) Roseline Phay, farmer: ++STARTS ON SHOT 5++
“I am a farmer. I have this little child on my back and the other child in my stomach, suffering. My parents don’t have money. They do farm work. If we don’t work hard, we won’t survive. We are begging for medicine. If they bring it to Palala or Fhokoleh, even if it can’t come to the community, I will walk to Palala or Fhokoleh. If there’s no medicine there, I go ask the (community health worker). She also says there’s no medicine.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bong County, Liberia – 13 June 2025
8. Morris Wamah explainiing where he has worked in Bong County
9. Wamah looking at map of Bong County
10. SOUNDBITE (Pidgin English/English) Morris Wamah, director, Liberian Initiative for Developmental Services: ++STARTS ON SHOT 8++
“I can just imagine, if the way USAID pulled out, if WHO pulls out, and maybe the World Bank too pulls out, Liberia is going to collapse.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bong County, Liberia – 14 June 2025
11. Various of Phay and her daughter Pauline in front of their home
STORYLINE:
In downtown Monrovia, signs of Liberia’s ties to the U.S. can be seen everywhere.
The capital is named after former U.S. president James Monroe, and green American-style street signs and yellow school buses dot the landscape. Liberia’s flag, at first glance, might be mistaken for the star spangled banner.
The ties between the two countries are stronger than most know. Liberia itself was established in the early 1800s with the aim of relocating freed slaves and free-born Black people from the United States.
Despite this, the country is one of many around the world that is now facing a future without USAID.
Support from the U.S. made up almost 2.6% of the gross national income, the highest percentage anywhere in the world, according to the Center for Global Development.
Liberia deputy finance minister Dehpue Y. Zuo, who is responsible for drafting the development budget, said he acknowledges the U.S.’ right to make its own decisions, but felt there "should have been a transition".
USAID funding touched almost every sector of Liberian society, from education to healthcare to forest preservation.
But most of the U.S. funding went to Liberia’s health system, making up 48% of its budget.
It funded malaria control, maternal health programs, HIV/AIDS treatment and community health programs. It financed hundreds of health projects run by aid groups.
Far from Monrovia’s densely packed streets, in Sarworlor in Bon County, a village only accessible by motorbike, Roseline Phay is one of many who have had their lives turned upside down by the cuts.
Phay, 32, is a farmer, and already had two daughters when she went to the closest clinic in a town called Palala, looking to get contraceptives.
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