The USAid website is offline. The headquarters of this major US federal agency, responsible for humanitarian aid and economic development abroad, was deserted on Monday, February 3, when employees were asked to stay at home. A delegation of Democratic members of Congress was turned away at the entrance. Over the weekend, two of the agency's security officers were placed on administrative leave for refusing access to confidential documents and personnel files requested by employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Originally intended as a task force, this department, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, aims to impose unprecedentedly severe cuts on the federal government over 18 months. The presidential decree that created it calls for a team of four employees to be set up within each federal agency to review its activities and personnel. USAid is the first symbolic target of DOGE, which the SpaceX and Tesla boss has decided to shut down. On February 2, on X, he wrote: "USAID is a criminal organization. It's time for it to die."

USAid was created by John Fitzerald Kennedy in 1961. At the time, the Democratic president promised a "new partnership between North and South," to demonstrate that "economic growth and political democracy can develop hand in hand."

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