How the world’s richest man helped trigger an HIV crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries.
When Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was made head of Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, he took a knife to foreign aid spending. He claimed billions were being lost to corruption within USAID and wasted on useless and absurd programmes, including $50m on buying “condoms for Hamas” in Gaza. But he was talking about the wrong Gaza.
Mozambique’s Gaza province suffers one of the highest rates of HIV in the world and depended heavily on USAID for treatment and prevention. When Musk closed the agency down, it set off a chain reaction, putting the lives of millions of people at risk. Al Jazeera travelled to Gaza province to witness the real-life consequences of Musk’s ruthless cuts.
Published On 22 Jul 2026