CNN
–
An employee of the U.S. International Development Agency spoke about the panic he experienced this week after being ordered back from his mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Several employees have been confused from Kinshasa as part of a lawsuit filed by a group that was filed Tuesday by a group representing foreign service members of the agency amid violent protests in the capital. I drew a tragic photo of the departure. This leads to internal disruption in Washington’s leadership regarding holidays and lack of staff guidance.
Recent weeks of directives for staff around the world to return to employees to work on US and administrative leave, Trump to freeze foreign aid and dismantle agencies to reduce the size of the federal workforce It came as part of the government’s efforts.
CNN has contacted the State Department and has requested comment from USAID.
The State Department ordered non-emergency US government officials and their families to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo in late January as violence escalated through the country and its capital Kinshasa.
The DRC’s US embassy is closed until further notice, but advised US citizens on Tuesday with a “to-location” security alert in Kinshasa. The embassy urged citizens to “depart safely while commercial options are available.”
An official stationed at the DRC told CNN that the employee who left most of his belongings at Kinshasa doesn’t know if the house there will be plundered or burned out.
Everyone “we thought we could do this job until things settle down and we could go back, but that’s not an option anymore,” the official said. “It’s the anxiety of us losing our jobs and what we’re doing doesn’t exist anymore.”
“The most important thing is that people understand that we are not criminals,” the official said. Musk is heading the newly formed government’s efficiency department, debating the shutdown of USAID with Trump.
Workers are worried that the US government might “abandon them completely” in Kinshasa
One foreign affairs officer identified as Marcus Do in the lawsuit feared the safety of him and his family amid widespread protests in Kinshasa on January 28th outside the US embassy and home. He said that.
He said the detailed challenges he and other staff faced – including a colleague whose home was burning up and “lost all his belongings to loot” – and “not directly approved by the agency’s delegate manager. “He said, ” Administration order.
“I began to feel acute panic that my government might abandon Americans who work for USAID in Kinshasa for all,” Marcus Doe said.
Marcus Daw said he and his colleagues evacuated in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, by small boat. From there, they boarded a flight to Washington where they “were allowed two nights at the airport hotel and got to figure out what we were going to do next,” according to the filing.
The lawsuit left employees to sort out housing, schooling plans for children, and “other support payments normally paid to evacuated families.”
“We have not received these payments so far,” Marcus Daw said in his submission: A fierce sense of panic and uncertainty in the Kinshasa riot. ”
One pregnant foreign health officer identified as Ruth Daw in the filing said she had access to limited water and had not received food for 12 hours when she returned to the US. The department said the agency would “help to promote” access to prenatal care upon her return home, not that.
“Up to this point, the Department of Health Services Department was unable to assist in arranging appointments earlier than March 10,” Ruth Daw said. At Kinshasa.
Ruth Daw pointed out that she was traveling outside Washington to receive care and paid it at her own expense. She has not received a refund, she said in the submission “to cover the costs of accommodation, food, clothing and other essentials.”
“In a week, I spent almost $5,000 on these essentials,” Ruth Daw said. “We received conflicting and unclear guidance on how to submit for refunds for these costs. Given the confusing nature of the USAID shutdown, I would like to provide timely refunds for these costs. I’m worried about not receiving it.”
Foreign Services Officer explains the “mental and physical distress” of movement
Another foreign service officer identified as Nathan Do in the filing is detailed in the “Trauma,” in which he has to leave Kinshasa in the middle of the night with three young children. He said it hasn’t become easier since he arrived in Washington.
“To minimize the personal expenses I was incurring,” Nathan Daw wrote in the filing. His family rented an apartment in Washington and moved to Michigan.
At the time of submission, Nathan Daw said he had not received guidance on whether he would be refunded for the relocation, saying “there are no people around to coordinate the evacuation of USAID.”
“I got a call from the kids asking if there’s still work and what they’re going on in the USAID because I tried to navigate work, situations and more, and so I got a call from the kids asking if they still have work and what they’re trying to do. “I did,” he said in a submission by Nathan Doe.
“My kids were scared. We were not only experiencing the trauma of evacuation, but for us, we were scared of unemployed,” he continued. “I’m experiencing mental and physical distress and fatigue.”
Lawmakers’ slums move as “scandal”
Following the US Foreign Affairs Association lawsuit, Virginia Democrat Rep. Don Bayer criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting director of Trump and the agency, for the chaos in returning employees at foreign services.
“This is an absolute scandal,” Bayer wrote in an X post.
Beyer is the latest Democrat in Congress to shut down government agencies, withhold critical foreign aid and denounce the administration’s attempts to mitigate key oversight.
Since taking office in January, Trump has fired many government watchdogs, including USAID inspectors, the day after his office released a report critical of the administration’s efforts.
“Trump is causing chaos and confusion, and in the case of USAID, it puts so many lives at risk,” Sen. Corey Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said last week in X.
“What’s crucial now is that we are not silent. We have to call for this,” he continued.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Cait Limpolantz contributed to this report.
