USAID employees told to stay out of Washington headquarters

The employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday.

Citing email communication of the aid agency, Voice of America (VoA) said the USAID staffers received emails saying that ‘at the direction of agency leadership, the headquarters building will be closed to agency personnel on Monday, February 3’.

USAID employees said more than 600 employees were locked out of the agency's computer systems overnight. The developments came following announcement of billionaire Elon Musk on US President Donald Trump’s consent to shut the agency.

CNN said logos and photos of its aid work were stripped from building walls and its website and social media accounts have gone dark, replaced with a reduced version of its webpage on the State Department’s website.

The longtime international aid agency has found itself in the crosshairs of Trump and Musk’s effort to reform the federal government. Trump and his allies have said the agency, created by congress as an independent body, is overtly partisan. Democrats have rejected that assertion and say Trump does not have the authority to dismantle the agency.