The United States and Congo have sealed a major five year health financing pact valued at $1.2 billion, marking the latest reset in how the U.S. structures its medical support across Africa.
In a joint statement released Thursday, both governments confirmed the agreement, which commits the U.S. to provide up to $900 million to strengthen Congo’s response to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child mortality, and other infectious diseases. In return, Congo has pledged to raise its own domestic health spending by $300 million over the same period.
The deal places Congo among more than a dozen African nations that have recently entered into similar arrangements with the U.S., many after grappling with reductions in American aid. Across the continent, those cuts have strained fragile health systems that long depended on U.S. funding to sustain disease surveillance, treatment programs, and emergency outbreak responses.
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As of Thursday, the State Department had finalized 19 bilateral global health partnerships with African governments. Officials describe the new framework, branded under the Trump administration’s “America First” approach, as an effort to push partner countries toward greater financial ownership while removing what it characterizes as ideological priorities and inefficiencies in prior assistance models. The agreements replace earlier health compacts that were administered through the now dismantled United States Agency for International Development.
Policy analysts view the shift as consistent with President Donald Trump’s broader diplomatic style, favoring direct, government to government negotiations that tie assistance more closely to U.S. strategic interests.
The Congo announcement landed the same day the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voiced unease about clauses embedded in some of the new agreements. The agency warned that certain provisions require participating countries to share data with the U.S. on pathogens capable of triggering outbreaks within their borders as a condition for receiving funds.
“There are huge concerns regarding data, regarding pathogen sharing,” Africa CDC director-general Dr. Jean Kaseya told reporters.
Tensions over that issue surfaced a day earlier when talks between the United States and Zimbabwe broke down. Zimbabwe walked away from a proposed health funding arrangement after rejecting a requirement to provide sensitive health data.
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It remains unclear whether similar data sharing conditions are attached to the newly signed partnership between the United States and Congo, the AP indicated in a report.
