London, Europe Brief News – The decision to reduce the British foreign aid budget has proved deadly, a new study found.
Thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people died as consequence of Boris Johnson’s “disastrous” foreign aid cuts, the report revealed.
In addition to the humanitarian costs of cutting Britain’s foreign aid budget from 0.7 percent to 0.5 percent of gross national income (GNI), the cuts have decimated Britain’s soft power in countries like war-torn Syria.
An exclusive survey of 1,015 displaced Syrians – 715 internally displaced people and 400 refugees living in makeshift camps in Lebanon – by the charity Syria Relief found that 95 per cent were concerned about cuts to Britain’s foreign aid. A further 93 per cent admitted it had made their opinion of the UK worse.
British government has earlier slashed hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign aid to countries in conflict zones.
Senior British civil servants have discussed cutting aid to Syria by two-thirds, from £137m to just over £45m this year.
The figures seen by openDemocracy reveal for the first time the scale of British aid cuts.
UK aid to Libya fell by 63% in 2021-22. Assistance to Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo fall by roughly 60%.
In South Sudan, where millions face catastrophic famine, the UK’s aid spend dropped from £110m to just £45m.
British spending in the Sahel region of Africa also dropped by more than 90%, from £340m to £23m.
Aid to Lebanon fell by 88%, although some of this shortfall will be covered by a rise in assistance from other budgets.
The cuts have sparked criticism from senior MPs, and have prompted LiveAid campaigner Bob Geldof to accuse Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “a grotesque betrayal of the UK and this government’s own commitments” and of failing “some of the most hungry, terrified, hurt people of our world.
