Reporter Monika Pronczuk and photographer Misper Apawu were the first to document the real-world consequences of frozen U.S. aid that had long supported Ivory Coast’s fight against insecurity in the increasingly volatile West Africa region.
Their reporting focused on the remote village of Kimbirila-Nord, a community that has been marginalized and isolated by the central government for years. After jihadist groups struck a nearby Malian town, USAID had launched an aid program aimed at preventing extremist groups from taking hold in the dense forest that straddles the Ivory Coast-Mali border.
Now, with U.S. foreign aid slashed, that support is gone—even as violence in Mali and across the Sahel has reached record levels, pushing tens of thousands of refugees into Ivory Coast.
To report the story, Pronczuk and Apawu traveled to one of the most remote regions of Ivory Coast, a 15-hour drive from the capital, Abidjan. Due to a series of jihadist attacks five years ago, the area was designated a special military operations zone, requiring the journalists to navigate significant bureaucratic and security hurdles.
They met with officials in Abidjan and in every town and village they passed through before reaching Kimbirila-Nord—a village with no running water and limited phone or internet access that few journalists have ever reached.
Their reporting shines a light on how geopolitical decisions made in Washington are being felt in some of the world’s most vulnerable and underreported places.
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