Ugandans are criticising Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, for supporting the Trump administration's decision to cut funding to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The move has dealt a major blow to global efforts to combat the disease. Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, has a history of disagreements with Ayebare, and many Ugandans believe his celebration of the funding cut is personal. Their tensions date back to last year when Byanyima criticised a controversial post by Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba on X (formerly Twitter). Muhoozi, President Yoweri Museveni’s son and Chief of Defence Forces, caused an uproar by tweeting threats to capture Sudan's capital, Khartoum, if Donald Trump returned to office. Ayebare reacted to the UNAIDS funding cut by posting on X: "Thank you @POTUS @SecRubio, the work of @UNAIDS is not life-saving. Their work can be done by our health ministries and potentially Africa CDC. @UNAIDS has become a conveyor belt for contested cultural issues. @PEPFAR is the real deal." His comments sparked backlash, with X user @weskambale responding: "Adonia, your personal issues with @Winnie_Byanyima shouldn't drive you to such lows. How do you celebrate cutting aid to a global entity your regime has claimed to have helped Winnie lead? Isn't that ironic? "PEPFAR, though larger in budget, has a limited mandate, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. By celebrating UNAIDS funding cuts, you're cheering a loss for regions where PEPFAR isn't present and UNAIDS was their only hope. "U.S. funding priorities shift with politics. No one foresaw USAID's closure this year, yet here we are at Trump's whims. What if PEPFAR is next? "Since its inception, UNAIDS has mobilised resources, advocated for policies, and supported prevention programmes—leading to a 60% reduction in new HIV infections since 1995. "By 2023, 30.7 million people were on ART, up from 7.7 million in 2010, contributing to a 69% decline in AIDS-related deaths since 2004. And yet, out of sheer pettiness and ignorance, you claim this agency isn't life-saving?" Former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Winnie Kiiza reacted with laughing emojis, while another user posted: "From Uganda's Permanent Representative to the UN. How can someone be this unaware, dispassionate, emotionally detached, and self-absorbed? Tweeting from the comfort of his office in New York, paid for by Ugandan taxpayers." The US funding cut is part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to withdraw from life-saving health and anti-poverty programmes. The decision, spearheaded by Trump loyalist Peter Marocco, follows the administration’s freeze on foreign assistance, which has already disrupted HIV treatment worldwide. Before the cuts, the US provided two-thirds of all international funding for HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries, with much of it channelled through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Established in 2003 under George W. Bush, PEPFAR has financed about 70% of the global HIV/AIDS response.