Mali and Burkina Faso have introduced they’re imposing full visa bans on United States residents in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s ban on US visas for his or her residents this month.
The 2 West African international locations, that are each ruled by the navy, on Tuesday grew to become the most recent African nations to problem “tit-for-tat” visa bans on the US. These observe Trump’s new visa restrictions, which now apply to 39 international locations in Africa, Asia, the Center East and Latin America. The White Home stated they have been imposed on “nationwide safety” grounds.
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“In accordance with the precept of reciprocity, the Ministry of International Affairs and Worldwide Cooperation informs the nationwide and worldwide neighborhood that, with fast impact, the Authorities of the Republic of Mali will apply the identical circumstances and necessities to US nationals as these imposed on Malian residents,” the Malian ministry stated in a press release.
Burkina Faso’s overseas minister, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore, in a separate assertion equally cited a reciprocity rule for his nation’s visa ban.
Which international locations have issued bans on visas for US residents?
The US directive issued on December 16 expanded full US visa bans to residents of 5 nations aside from Mali and Burkina Faso: Laos, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Syria.
Travellers holding journey paperwork issued by the Palestinian Authority have been additionally banned from getting into the US beneath the order.
The US cited the international locations’ poor screening and vetting capabilities, information-sharing insurance policies, visa overstay charges and refusal to take again their deported nationals for the ban.
Trump’s order additionally famous international locations have been moreover assessed primarily based on whether or not they had a “vital terrorist presence”.
The US ban takes impact on Thursday.
Mali, Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger have been stricken by violence from armed teams linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) for years. The violence in these international locations has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.
On Friday, Niger banned entry for US residents, additionally citing the US ban on its residents. The nation can be military-led like its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso. All three shaped the Alliance of Sahel States in July 2024 to sort out safety issues and enhance commerce relations.
In its personal reciprocal transfer, Chad stopped issuing visas to US residents on June 6 with an exception for US officers. Solely US residents who have been issued visas earlier than June 9 are actually allowed entry into Chad.
The nation was on an preliminary checklist of 12 nations whose residents the Trump administration issued a full visa ban on from June 9.
Which international locations are affected by the US visa bans?
Residents of 39 international locations are actually beneath full or partial entry restrictions to the US, in keeping with the US-based Council on International Relations suppose tank.
These totally banned are:
- Afghanistan
- Burkina Faso
- Chad
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Mali
- Myanmar
- Niger
- Republic of Congo
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
- Holders of journey paperwork issued by the Palestinian Authority are additionally totally banned.
These partially restricted are:
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burundi
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Ivory Coast
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Is Trump particularly focusing on African international locations with visa bans?
Trump’s strategy to Africa relating to visa entries in his second time period as US president is much like that of his first administration when he issued a “Muslim ban”, which included residents of three African nations – Somalia, Sudan and Libya – in addition to Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
In later updates to the ban, Sudan was eliminated whereas Chad was added.
Most international locations beneath US entry restrictions since Trump took workplace on January 20 are in Africa. Of the 39 affected international locations, 26 are African nations.
How have US-Africa commerce relations fared beneath Trump?
Tradewise, the US has shifted away from its preferential African Progress and Alternative Act (AGOA) commerce programme to a tariff-based regime that has additionally been utilized to most different international locations around the globe beneath Trump’s tariffs coverage.
From 2000, AGOA supplied African nations with duty-free entry to US markets, bolstering African exports to the US of a variety of products, from wine to vehicles.
AGOA created an estimated 300,000 jobs in African international locations and not directly sustained one other 1.2 million jobs, in keeping with the US-based Heart for Strategic Worldwide Research.
Nonetheless, AGOA expired in September after the US Congress did not renew it. Though the Trump administration stated it supported a one-year extension, no steps have been introduced to revive the programme.
As an alternative, African international locations now face usually steep tariffs because the US generally justifies them on political grounds.
South Africa, Africa’s richest nation, for instance, was slapped with a 30 percent tariff after Trump made debunked allegations of a “genocide” on the nation’s white Afrikaner minority. The US authorities has since prioritised resettling Afrikaners as refugees within the US.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Trump on the White Home in Could and defined that crime within the nation targets the inhabitants at giant – not simply its white residents – however was unable to steer Trump.
Trump’s administration can be prioritising its entry to vital uncommon earth minerals, used to develop high-tech units, in a bid to stay aggressive with China, which mines about 60 % of the world’s uncommon earth metals and processes 90 % of them.
Trump took up a mediator position within the battle between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Rwanda this 12 months after the DRC authorities proposed a minerals cope with the US. The US and United Nations accuse Rwanda of backing a riot by the M23 armed group within the jap DRC.
Trump didn’t decide to US navy intervention within the DRC however efficiently secured a peace pact between the 2 international locations on December 4 after making use of diplomatic stress on Rwanda.
Attacks on civilians by M23 have nonetheless continued regardless of the peace deal.
A clause within the pact granted US companies precedence entry to each the DRC’s and Rwanda’s mineral reserves, which embrace cobalt, copper, lithium and gold.
How about assist and safety cooperation?
In early 2025, the Trump administration shut down the US Agency for International Development and cut billions of dollars of US foreign aid, affecting many African international locations that drastically trusted the world’s largest funder of well being and humanitarian assist.
Help teams have since reported rising starvation in northern Nigeria, Somalia and northeastern Kenya.
Well being observers and analysts have additionally raised the alarm in regards to the danger of undoing work to stop and include the unfold of HIV in Lesotho and South Africa.
In northern Cameroon, officers have reported a spike in malaria deaths as drug provides fall. This month, the US unilaterally pledged $400m in well being funding to the nation over the following 5 years on the situation that Cameroon raises its personal annual well being spending from $22m to $450m.
African nations have been additionally most affected when Trump recalled 30 profession diplomats appointed by former President Joe Biden from 29 international locations final week.
Fifteen of them had been stationed in African nations: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda.
In the meantime, the US has continued to accentuate strikes in opposition to armed teams linked to ISIL and al-Qaeda, much like these throughout Trump’s first time period as president from 2017 to 2021.
In Somalia, the US launched strikes in September focusing on al-Shabab and the ISIL affiliate in Somalia Province, in keeping with the US-based New America Basis suppose tank.
The US additionally focused ISIL- and al-Qaeda-linked teams in northwestern Nigeria for the primary time on Thursday.
Whereas these strikes have been carried out in collaboration with the Nigerian authorities, a battle of narratives prevailed between the 2 international locations.
The US claims to be “saving” Nigerian Christians, who it alleges are experiencing a genocide.
Nigerian authorities, alternatively, deny claims of genocide and say individuals of all religions have been badly affected by armed teams working within the nation.
