"It’s hard to imagine the people I met who rely on U.S. drugs for their survival suddenly cut off," New York Times reporter Stephanie Nolen wrote of her recent trip to the northwest region of Zambia in a comment online.
The New York Times reported on March 16 that a draft memo obtained by the outlet indicated Trump administration officials may have proposed withholding health aid from Zambia unless the country agreed to expand access to its mineral resources.
In the draft, prepared by the U.S. State Department's Africa Bureau, conditions were laid out that, if officially raised and enforced, could result in the U.S. halting provisions of life-saving HIV aid and other health care to Zambia as soon as May.
The memo, prepared for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, outlined steps for the Zambian government to receive humanitarian aid provided it gives American businesses greater access to Zambian mines and mineral deposits. The draft also demanded that Zambia renegotiate its contract with a U.S. foreign assistance agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, in order to revise regulatory changes in the country's mining industry, according to the Times.
Zambia is Africa's second-largest producer of copper. According to Columbia University's Center for Development and Economics Policy, 80 percent of the country's export earnings and 14 percent of its gross domestic product are tied to copper alone. Zambia is also understood to have reserves of cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese, and graphite. These minerals are used in green energy infrastructure, such as electric vehicle batteries, and are understood as key to the clean energy transition.
The Times' Stephanie Nolen, reporting from the capital of Lusaka, noted that the U.S. has been frustrated by what it perceives to be "China's preferential access to Zambian mines." But while some have pointed to minerals smuggling and corruption as issues, others have pointed to the legalized plundering of the country's mineral wealth by powerful multinational enterprises as the real problem.
Journalists like Kennedy Phiri from Zambia and Freddie Clayton from the U.K. have also explained that more mining could increase pollution risks, following past mining-related contamination in the country. A report from Phiri and Clayton published this week at Yale Environment 360 underscored the importance of investing in environmental protections in step with mining expansion.
According to a national HIV and AIDS prevention roadmap for 2025-2030, "Zambia continues to face a significant HIV burden ... Women are disproportionately affected, with a prevalence of 13.9 percent compared to 8 percent among men."
More than a million people in Zambia rely on aid provided through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, commonly known as PEPFAR. The treatments provided include life-sustaining antiretroviral therapies for those living with HIV and pre-exposure prophylaxis to help reduce the spread of the virus.
Zambia has received over $6.7 billion through the program. When it launched under the George W. Bush administration, approximately 90,000 deaths each year in the country could be attributed to HIV, according to the Times.
"On this reporting trip, I revisited HIV programs and medical wards in the northwest region of Zambia, where the burden of the disease is heaviest, and I could see that the programs have deteriorated in the year since the flow of assistance was interrupted," Nolen wrote in a comment on the article. "It’s hard to imagine the people I met who rely on U.S. drugs for their survival suddenly cut off."
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