In Nigeria, a mother watched one of her infant twins die after the program that had been treating them for severe acute malnutrition shut down. In South Sudan, unaccompanied children were unable to reunite with surviving relatives at three refugee camps, due to other cuts. Allara Ali, a coordinator for Doctors Without Borders who oversees the group’s work at Bay Regional Hospital, in Somalia, told us that children are arriving there so acutely malnourished and “deteriorated” that they cannot speak—a result of emergency-feeding centers no longer receiving funds from USAID to provide fortified milks and pastes. Fifty percent of the children with severe acute malnutrition are dying within the first two days of admission at Bay Regional, Doctors Without Borders wrote to us. Many mothers who travel more than 100 miles so that a doctor might see their child return home without them.

One man has consistently cheered and helped execute the funding cuts that have exacerbated suffering and death. In February, Elon Musk, acting in his capacity as a leader of DOGE, declared that USAID was “a criminal organization” …

Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article. Last month, in an interview with Bloomberg, he argued that his critics have been unable to produce any evidence that these cuts at USAID have resulted in any real suffering …

The issue here is not just that Musk is wrong. It is that his indifference to the suffering of people in Africa exists alongside his belief that he has a central role to play in the future of the human species.