At the start of this year, the U.S. slashed foreign aid, ripping away funding for clinics, legal aid, and safe spaces that women living through war rely on. The State Department restructure dismantled entire teams working on women’s rights, conflict stabilization, and migration.
These cuts were political, deliberate choices. Ones that erased women from peace tables and stripped away their ability to rebuild their lives and communities. Weeks later, the U.S. brokered a peace deal in the DRC: one with no justice, no plan for healing, and no meaningful role for the communities most affected by the war.
These aren’t isolated moves. Together, they signal a shift from diplomacy to extraction, from care to control, where peace is signed behind closed doors, and the women who held communities together during conflict are left out.