African leaders considered demanding Trump apologize

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — African leaders this week came close to demanding that President Donald Trump publicly apologize for his vulgar remark about the continent “that defies all forms of diplomatic etiquette,” according to a draft declaration obtained by the Associated Press.

The draft, created during an African Union summit on Sunday and Monday, says heads of state are “deeply appalled” by Trump’s reported comparison of African countries to a dirty toilet.

It warns that the partnership between Africa and the U.S. is at risk because of Trump’s “racist and xenophobic behavior.”

The African leaders appear to have changed their mind on issuing the draft declaration because of a Trump letter to them last week pledging his “deep respect” and saying Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would make an “extended visit” to the continent in March, his first in that role. The letter emerged after Trump met with Rwanda’s president and new African Union chairman Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum last week.

Many African leaders had been outraged by Trump’s comment last month, after nearly a year of little attention by his administration to the world’s second most populous continent. Concerns have been widespread over proposed deep cuts to U.S. foreign aid and a shift from humanitarian assistance to counterterrorism.

Ahead of the summit, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, declared that “Africa cannot keep quiet” about Trump’s “shocking” remarks. But by Monday he had toned down his stance, telling reporters only that African leaders had received a “letter of correspondence” from Trump.

The draft declaration, however, shows how the 55-nation continental body came close to speaking out.

It says African leaders were “dismayed and shocked by the increasingly consistent trend from the Trump administration to denigrate people of African descent and other people of color thereby promoting racism, xenophobia and bigotry.”

It calls on the U.S. to retract Trump’s remark and demands that he officially and publicly apologize.

Kagame, the new AU chair, indicated Monday that Africa and the Trump administration will have to find a way to get along.

“I’ve met the president of the United States, but the president of the United States is Trump,” Kagame said. “When the United States decides to give us Trump as their president, we will deal with that president.”