The Trump administration moved its fast-paced dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) toward what appeared to be its final phases, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday and notifying at least 1,600 of the US-based staffers they were being fired.

The move was the latest and one of the biggest steps in what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government.

“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” according to the notices sent to USAID workers that were viewed by The Associated Press.

At the same time, the agency said in the notices to staffers that it was beginning a firing process, called reduction in force, that would eliminate 2,000 U.S.-based jobs. A version of the notice posted later on USAID’s website put the number of positions to be eliminated lower, at 1,600.

The administration gave no explanation for the discrepancy.

The cut in aid to Afghanistan could meanwhile spell disaster. While no one has clarified exactly how this order will impact the country the deputy minister of economy, Abdul Latif Nazari told NPR recently that around 50 national and international aid organizations had their operations suspended, partly or entirely, across Afghanistan.

“These organizations have contributed to humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan,” said Nazari. He declined to specify why the charities had stopped work, but a senior aid worker in Kabul said it was because those organizations were receiving money through USAID.

The suspension in aid to Afghanistan puts at least 15 million people at risk, most of whom are women and children.

The World Food Programme only had enough money last year to help less than half those people and about 40 percent of their funding comes from the US.

But the Trump administration efforts upend decades of US policy that aid and development work overseas serves national security by stabilizing regions and economies and building alliances.

The notices sent out this weekend included letters of termination to hundreds of USAID contractors.

Foreign USAID staffers meanwhile fear that continued problems with funding flows and the gutting of most of the headquarters staff will make a safe and orderly return difficult, especially those with children in school, houses to sell and ill family members.

USAID’s notice Sunday said it was “committed to keeping its overseas personnel safe” and pledged not to cut off USAID staffers abroad from agency systems and other support.