US doesn't care about Africa, say nations hit by Trump travel ban

Countries deny they are havens for terrorism, insisting that the White House has simply picked on targets too small to fight back.

- Fred Harter reports

The communications minister for Republic of the Congo awoke last Thursday to some surprising news.

Scrolling through his social media feed, Thierry Moungalla discovered that citizens from the central African nation of six million people - dwarfed by its neighbour and near-namesake, the Democratic Republic of the Congo - would no longer be allowed to travel to the United States.

President Trump had issued a blanket travel ban to citizens of Congo, along with those from 11 other countries, many of them in Africa, because they all had a "large-scale presence of terrorists."

"We are somewhat surprised," Moungalla said. "Obviously, Congo is not a terrorist country, is not home to any terrorists, nor is it known for any terrorist tendencies. So we think this is a misunderstanding."

Other nations on the list were similarly confused. A spokesperson for Eritrea told The Observer its government was awaiting "full clarification", pointing out that his nation had an "impeccable track record of fighting fundamentalist terrorism."