US Signs Health Aid Deal With Nigeria

Washington announced that it has signed a deal to strengthen Nigeria’s health system, a sign of improving ties with Africa’s most populous nation after President Donald Trump denounced attacks against Christians there.

According to AFP, a US State Department spokesman stated that under a five-year bilateral deal, Washington will contribute nearly $2.1 billion to help prevent HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and polio, and to protect maternal and child health.

Nigeria has committed to increasing its national health spending by nearly $3 billion over the five-year period, the spokesman said, adding that the bilateral deal contains a strong emphasis on promoting Christian faith-based health care providers.

The deal signed Saturday “was negotiated in connection with reforms the Nigerian government has made to prioritise protecting Christian populations from violence,” the State Department spokesman added.

Trump last month drew widespread attention after saying on social media that the United States was prepared to take military action in Nigeria in response to the killing of Christians.

The US president has repeatedly said that Christianity faces an “existential threat” in Nigeria and other countries, citing what his administration describes as widespread global persecution of Christians.

Washington has since returned Nigeria to its list of countries of “particular concern” over religious freedom and has imposed restrictions on visa issuance to Nigerians.

Nigeria is broadly divided between a predominantly Christian south and a largely Muslim north.

According to the United Nations, the country has faced a jihadist insurgency since 2009 that has killed at least 40,000 people, both christains and muslims and displaced around two million.

Earlier this month, the United States signed a $2.5 billion health aid agreement with Kenya, marking the first such bilateral deal since President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and sidelined non-governmental organisations.

Since returning to the office, Trump has shut down USAID, the world’s largest aid agency, and ordered a sweeping overhaul of US foreign assistance under his “America First” policy.