In a blatant display of 'mineral imperialism,' the US State Department is considering withholding critical HIV/AIDS assistance to Zambia to force the nation into a lopsided mining agreement. For decades, the PEPFAR program has been a lifeline for millions of Zambians living with HIV. Now, Washington is leveraging this humanitarian aid as a 'stick' to secure preferential access to the country’s massive reserves of copper and cobalt—minerals essential for the West’s so-called 'green' energy transition. This move exposes the true nature of US foreign policy: the health of the Global South is a bargaining chip for corporate resource extraction.

The Trump administration’s strategy is designed to counter China’s long-standing influence in the Zambian mining sector. Rather than competing through fair trade or infrastructure investment, the US is opting for a form of biological blackmail. By tying lifesaving medical funding to mineral access, the State Department is effectively telling the Zambian people that their right to live is contingent upon their willingness to surrender their natural wealth to Western mining conglomerates like Virtus Minerals.

Zambian officials and international health organizations have reacted with horror at the proposal. Copper production in Zambia is slated to triple by 2031, with projects like the Mingomba mine already attracting interest from US billionaires. However, the benefits of this mineral boom rarely reach the workers on the ground. Instead, the profits are siphoned off by foreign capital while the domestic population faces the threat of a public health catastrophe if PEPFAR funding is cut.

This is the enclosure of biology. The US is attempting to own not just the minerals in the ground, but the very survival of the people who live above them. We must demand an immediate uncoupling of health aid from commercial trade negotiations. Solidarity with the Zambian working class means rejecting a world where medicine is used as a weapon of empire.