Republican Scott Perry, a congressman representing Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district has alleged that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was funding terrorists organisations including Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Perry made the allegation during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency yesterday in a presentation titled, “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud”. He asked: “Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 m annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, and terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding.”
Boko Haram has carried out terrorist attacks in north-eastern Nigeria since 2009. USAID has been under intense scrutiny since President Donal Trump took office last month as he threatened to dismantle the organisation. Staff have been on domestic leave since.
There are some Africans that view the operations of agencies like USAID and Western NGOs in Africa with suspicion. They are seen as a route towards gaining influence in resource-rich African nations such as Nigeria. It has also been alleged that US authorities sometimes sponsor conflicts as part of this equation. The CIA is alleged to have trained and funded Osama bin Laden during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
