Africans outraged over 'racist' Trump remarks
NAIROBI, Jan 13 ( AFP) - Africans have reacted angrily after US President Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as “shithole countries”, with many accusing the US president of racism and ignorance.
The 55-nation African Union condemned the remarks on Friday, while a statement from ambassadors of all countries from the continent at the United Nations demanded a retraction and apology.
The African Group of UN ambassadors said it was “extremely appalled at, and strongly condemns the outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks by the president of the United States of America as widely reported by the media”.
Ambassadors unanimously agreed the resolution after an emergency session to weigh Trump's remarks. The comment was “clearly” racist, said Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for AU chief Moussa Faki.
“This is even more hurtful given the historical reality of just how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, and also terribly surprising as the United States remains a massively positive example as just how migration can give birth to a nation,” Kalondo said. He stressed the US was “much stronger than the sum total of one man”.
Trump reportedly demanded to know why the United States should accept immigrants from “shithole countries”, after lawmakers raised the issue of protections for immigrants from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador. However he later tweeted: “this was not the language used”.
The UN slammed the reported remarks as “shocking and shameful” and “racist”. “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ' shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome,” Rupert Colville, www. sundaytimes. lk
LONDON, Jan 13 (AFP) - The British government blamed the threat of mass protests for President Donald Trump's decision to cancel a visit to London to open the new US embassy, and warned that criticism of the White House risked harming US-UK relations.
Trump said he was abandoning next month's trip because he did not like the location and cost of the new embassy building. But Foreign spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.
Botswana summoned the US ambassador to the country to “clarify if Botswana is regarded as a 'shithole' country”, according to a foreign ministry statement calling Trump's comments “irresponsible, reprehensible and racist”. Senegal followed suit with Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba saying the government “firmly condemned the unacceptable remarks which undermine human dignity, especially of Africa and her diaspora”.
Social media users across the continent posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the hashtag “shithole”. Many Africans reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. “President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana,” wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. “First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why
abuse, the army on Wednesday said a probe found four members of the security forces helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects at Inn Din village on September 2, leaving their bodies in a hastily dug pit.
Some 655,000 Rohingya have fled western Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August, carrying with them consistent accounts of atrocities by Myanmar's army. Secretary Boris Johnson suggested the decision was prompted by opposition to Trump in Britain, and warned critics “seem determined to put this relationship at risk”.
PM Theresa May offered Trump a state visit to Britain a year ago. But the date has yet to be set in the face of deep hostility to the president in Britain. Trump tweeted overnight that he would not attend the ceremony. “I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts', only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” he wrote. “Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon - NO!” The embassy move is in fact the result of a decade-long project initiated by the administration of former Republican president George W. Bush.
people like you made that a 'shithole' continent.”
Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara told AFP that Trump's words were nothing new. “This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries.”
Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as Western nations. “Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations,” wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi.
In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress party declared “ours is not a shithole country” and described Trump as “extremely offensive”.
Some Nigerians did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a “shithole”, but that it was “our shithole” to criticise.