US Ambassador Voices Regret to African UN Envoys After Trump”s “Outrageous” Africa Remarks
UNITED NATIONS, (MILLAT ONLINE):Under intense pressure brought on by African ambassadors at the U.N. US Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed regret to them, but did not apologize for President Donald Trump’s vulgar comment about the continent as they had demanded, the chairman of the African Group said.
Haley met the African ambassadors at the United Nations on Thursday after they released a joint statement last week demanding an apology from Trump for his “outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks,” according to media reports.
Equatorial Guinea’s UN ambassador, Anatolio Ndong Mba, was quoted as saying after the closed meeting that “we do hope that that (apology) will come,” perhaps from Trump to African leaders at their summit in Ethiopia on January 28-29.
In this regard, Ndong Mba said the 54-nation African Group at the United Nations gave Haley a “specific recommendation” but he refused to disclose it.
Haley told the meeting that “she was not there at the White House, she is not sure what was said, but she regretted all this situation that has been created,” the ambassador was cited as saying in the media reports.
Trump is reported to have referred to African nations as “shithole countries” last week in dismissing a bipartisan immigration proposal, several participants at the meeting said. However, the president denied using that language.
Earlier this week, 78 former US ambassadors to Africa wrote a letter to Trump expressing “deep concern” over his comments and urging him to “reassess” his views on Africa.
The United Nations slammed the reported remarks as “shocking and shameful” as well as “racist.”
“You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome,” Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.