Claims by US President Donald Trump that former President Joe Biden donated $50 million worth of condoms to the Gaza Strip has been debunked.
Rather the $50m grant was meant for Gaza province in Mozambique, around 7,200 km away.
On his second day in office, Trump signed an executive order suspending all foreign aid programmes, slamming the previous Biden administration for funding what he claimed was unnecessary assistance.
He told reporters: “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. And do you know what they’ve done with them? They’ve used them to make bombs.”
The claims were met with questions about how Trump could have reached this bizarre conclusion.
Gaza Province is a rural region in Mozambique with a population of just over one million, which has received contraceptive funding through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) records show the organisation has received over $83 million in funding since 2021 for reproductive health projects in Mozambique’s Inhambane and Gaza provinces.
It remains unclear whether the Trump administration mistakenly referenced this grant or deliberately misrepresented it.
Relief agencies, health experts, and US government reports contradict Trump’s claim.
According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), no condoms have been sent to any part of the Middle East since 2019.
The agency’s most recent shipment to the region consisted of $45,680 worth of injectable and oral contraceptives sent to Jordan in 2023.
The International Medical Corps (IMC), a humanitarian group that has received $68 million from USAID for Gaza since 7 October 2023, confirmed: “No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms.”
