News on the street is that the US State Department plans the closure of several US Embassies across the world, including quite a few across Africa.

• Marco Rubio announces sweeping reorganisation of US state department (Guardian)
• Six African embassies facing closure by the Trump administration (The Saturday Standard)
• State Department to shut embassies and close Africa operations (The Telegraph)
• Trump eyes gutting US diplomacy in Africa, cutting soft power: draft plan (France 24)

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of State dismissed the media’s questions about a document that is circulating, and which some news sources claim is a draft executive order, as “fake news”. A State Department spokesman also called the draft “a fake document.”

But if it is true, which is not unusual with Trump’s administration to deny something that subsequently turns out to be true, what happens to all the people who stand to lose their jobs? We are not only talking about Africans, we’re also talking seasoned US diplomats with many years of experience under their belts. Where will they work?

For African employees of US embassies who lose their jobs, are there enough jobs for them to be absorbed into the workforces of the countries that will be affected? Should there be?