icddr,b to lay-off over 1,000 employees due to US funding cuts

The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) has issued termination letters to more than 1,000 of its employees following the US government's recent decision to halt funding to foreign programmes.

AKM Tariful Islam Khan, senior manager (communications) at icddr,b, confirmed the development to the media on Friday (31 January), stating that these employees were involved in various research projects funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Following the US government's directive, we have suspended all projects and research activities funded by them until further notice," Tariful said.

"We express our sympathy and regret for the inconvenience caused to our service recipients, various partners, and colleagues. We are hopeful that we can resume our activities in the future," he added.

This is the latest incident of employees being sacked from programmes funded by the USAID after President Donald Trump on 20 January issued an executive order suspending funding to all countries for 90 days to allow a review of the assistance programmes.