Trump's expanded travel ban hits Africa the hardest but reactions are muted

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Trump's expanded travel ban hits Africa the hardest but reactions are muted

2025-12-18 06:52 Last Updated At：07:30

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Africa has been the hardest hit by the Trump administration’s decision to add 20 countries to a list of travel restrictions but reactions on the continent of some 1.5 billion people were largely muted on Wednesday as affected nations mulled the implications of the measure and their next moves.

The new restrictions expand on the list from June and are broader and more punitive than those during Trump’s first presidency, which largely targeted Muslim-majority countries and which were reversed in 2021.

The African Union urged the United States to protect its borders in “a manner that is balanced, evidence-based, and reflective of the long-standing ties and partnership" between the U.S. and Africa, the bloc's spokesman Nuur Mohamu said.

The stance was a repeat of the statement by the bloc in June, when U.S. President Donald Trump revived the travel restrictions from his first term in office.

Of the five countries whose citizens joined the list on Tuesday of those banned from entering the United States, four are in Africa — Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and South Sudan, which was already facing significant travel restrictions. Also on the list are Syria and people with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank.

Some other countries — including Sierra Leone in Africa and Laos in Asia — were subject to partial restrictions during Trump's first presidency and also in June, and were now moved to the full restrictions list.

Twelve of the 15 countries that face partial restrictions are also in Africa. They include Angola, Benin, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The rest are two Caribbean nations — Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica — and Tonga in the South Pacific.

Trump’s expanded measures also link entry limits to security, documentation and visa-overstay concerns.

The 55-nation African Union warned of the “potential negative impact of such measures on people-to-people ties, educational exchanges, commercial engagement, and the broader diplomatic relations” built over decades.

Sierra Leone, now moved to the full ban list, said in a statement Wednesday that it hoped to engage Washington and get it to review the decision. The impoverished West African country said it would “remain committed to strengthening international cooperation and addressing immigration concerns raised by the U.S. government,” adding that officials are “actively engaged in ongoing, constructive dialogue with U.S authorities.”

In Mali, which was added to the full ban list on Tuesday, foreign ministry press officer Samuel Saye said it was “too early for us to comment” — something many other officials across Africa echoed.

Several analysts and activists described the measures as unfair, a sign of incoherent U.S.–Africa relations and an opportunity for Washington’s rivals such as Russia and China to further entrench ties with Africa.

Some ordinary citizens expressed their unease and concerns.

“I believe this position is unfair because it paints all Nigerians with the same brush,” said Ramlah Ibrahim Nok, a business lawyer in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Nigeria is on the list of partial restrictions.

Many Nigerians travel for “education, business and tourism,” she said and added that authorities in her own country should also do their part in confronting issues such as visa overstays by Nigerians who travel to the U.S.

Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at Control Risks Group in Dakar, Senegal's capital, predicted that Trump's ban will likely make relations between the U.S. and various African countries "incoherent, unpredictable and challenging.”

The measure also reduces prospects for cooperation and may push some governments to look elsewhere to build strong partnerships.

"It’s very unfortunate,” said Mohamed Keita, a 45-year-old Malian resident, adding that Washington's “decision may penalize Malians who do business with the United States.”

Also in Mali, Abdoulaye Fofana, 31, said he feared retaliation if Malian authorities "apply the principle of reciprocity, it is the bi-national Malians who will be affected.”

Sports enthusiasts are also worried, especially those hoping to travel to the 2026 soccer World Cup matches in the U.S., which is co-hosting the competition with Canada and Mexico.

Pape Seye, a taxi driver in Dakar, said he heard of “FIFA exemptions for the players and staff of the qualified teams” but was concerned whether "fans will be able to go as well” under the new measure.

In South Sudan, which was added to the full ban list, human rights activist Rajab Mohandis said the measure is “an open expression of increasing frustration of the Trump administration with the government" in the African country.

He added that the ban is “a way of invoking diplomatic consequences” following U.S. concerns over the slow implementation of a peace agreement signed in 2018 to end five years of conflict in South Sudan that left more than 400,000 people dead.

Associated Press writers from across Africa contributed to this report.

Trump pays respects to 2 Iowa National Guardsmen and interpreter killed in Syria as they return home

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump paid his respects Wednesday to two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert, joining their grieving families as their remains were brought back to the country they served.

Trump met privately with the families at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.

The guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa.

Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed. He will be laid to rest in Michigan this weekend.

The families of all three victims were at Dover for the return of their remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard.

The slain National Guard members were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

Returning to Joint Base Andrews after the transfer, Trump said it was a "beautiful event for three great people. And they’re now looking down and their parents and wives and all of the people that were there were, I mean, were devastated but great people, great people.”

Trump observed several dignified transfers at Dover in his first term and has said it was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.

There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other than to watch in silence, keeping all thoughts to himself for the moment. There is no speaking by any of the politicians and other dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.

Trump, wearing an overcoat against the chill and brisk wind, joined the other attendees in a salute that was held as each of the American flag-draped transfer cases was carried from the belly of a hulking C-17 military cargo plane and loaded into a dark, unmarked van nearby.

He gazed straight ahead as each case passed in front of him, though he turned to look after the first one was placed inside the vehicle. The remains were taken to the on-base mortuary for processing before they are released to the families.

At the start of the transfer, Trump and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined several others from the military at the open rear of the cargo plane, where all but Trump bowed their heads. The president looked inside the plane. Trump then stood alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when the group joined the official party.

Before Trump joined the others, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who flew up with Trump, dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

Howard's stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a boy. Howard's brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, was escorting him back to Iowa.

Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the local TV broadcast station WOI.

Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter, said Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by his wife and four adult children.

The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant Integrated Services.

Qiryaqoz said she and two of her siblings met with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth privately Wednesday. She described the meeting as comforting and assuring, with both strongly condemning the attack and expressing gratitude for her father’s service.

“He seemed like he really cared about my dad and the other soldiers that were unfortunately killed during this attack,” she said of Trump in an interview.

Trump has vowed retaliation, and the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, has said the attack is under active investigation. The U.S. military said the gunman was killed in the attack.

Before this attack, the most recent instance of U.S. service members being killed in action was in January 2024, when three American troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.

Saturday's deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. The leaders met at the White House last month.

Trump said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”

During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.

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Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.