US Congressman, Scott Perry, has said that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funded terrorist organisations, including Boko Haram.
Perry, a Republican representing Pennsylvania, made the claim during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Thursday.
Boko Haram, known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, is a self-proclaimed jihadist terrorist organisation based in northeastern Nigeria and also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali.
Boko Haram has been causing havoc in Northeast Nigeria for over 15 years, killing tens of thousands of people, in frequent attacks against the police, armed forces and civilians.
Boko Haram attacks have resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 children, displaced 2.3 million from their homes and contributed to regional food crises and famines.
The session, titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” focused on alleged misappropriations of taxpayer funds.
“Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding,” Perry said.
Perry cited USAID’s reported funding of $136 million for building 120 schools in Pakistan, alleging that there was “zero evidence” of the schools’ construction.
“You are funding terrorism, and it’s coming through USAID. And it’s not just Afghanistan, because Pakistan’s right next door.
“USAID spent $840 million in the last year, the last 20 years, on Pakistan’s education-related programme. It includes $136 million to build 120 schools, of which there is zero evidence that any of them were built. Why would there be any evidence? The Inspector General can’t get in to see them.
“But you know what? We doubled down and spent $20 million from USAID to create educational television programs for children unable to attend physical school. Yeah, they can’t attend it, because it doesn’t exist. You paid for it.
“Somebody else got the money. You are paying for terrorism. This has got to end.”
President Donald Trump had ordered the closure of USAID, accusing the agency of corruption in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire ally, who was appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, had also criticised USAID, alleging that it engaged in rogue operations.
Among other criticisms, Musk has claimed that USAID does “rogue CIA work” and even “funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people.”
