The workforce of the U.S. Agency for International Development will be slashed to just a few hundred employees from the weekend onwards, U.S. media reported on Thursday.

According to the New York Times, the Trump administration plans to reduce the agency’s staff from over 10,000 employees worldwide to around 290, citing three sources familiar with the plans.

National Public Radio reported that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been presented with a list of some 600 employees considered essential worldwide but ultimately exempted fewer than 300 from the staff cuts.

U.S. President Donald Trump had already frozen the agency’s funds in January pending an internal review, impacting a vast array of initiatives around the globe.

USAID is one of the largest aid agencies in the world and is responsible for doling out much of the U.S. government’s humanitarian assistance to developing countries and countries in crisis.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed it is run by “radical lunatics” seeking to hinder his America First foreign policy agenda.

This week, the U.S. government announced it would place many USAID employees on leave starting Friday night.

According to a statement on USAID’s website, all “direct-hire personnel” working anywhere in the world for the agency will be put on “administrative leave,” except employees in critical positions.

Those affected by the exemptions will be informed one day in advance, said the agency, which is under the acting leadership of Mr Rubio.

Around 10,000 people work for the agency, and two-thirds of them are outside the U.S.

Last year, the agency oversaw roughly $50 billion in development aid projects.

(dpa/NAN)