President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to shut embassies and consulates across a series of countries. The majority of the affected embassies are US embassies in Africa, a document that was obtained by The New York Times has shown.
The document shows that Trump’s administration is considering shutting down 10 embassies and 17 consulates. Among the targeted are 6 US embassies in Africa. They include embassies in Eritrea, Gambia, Lesotho, Central Africa Republic, South Sudan and the Republic of Congo.
Others are embassies in Malta and Luxembourg. The list of cuts also includes five consulates in France, two consulates in Germany, two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one in the United Kingdom, one in South Africa and one in South Korea.
This is as the Trump administration plans to slash the budget of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development by $28bn per year. The cuts are part of proposals by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Musk is currently the world’s richest man and close associate of President Trump.
The new developments come barely a month after the US released a list of countries whose citizens risk being banned permanently from entering the United States that was dominated by African countries. The list has been developed by the US State Department.
The list contained countries whose citizens are currently banned from US, countries where granting of US visas is sharply restricted, and countries that have been given 60 days to get their act together or get banned.
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Each of the categories contained an African country. The list of countries from Africa in all the three categories included Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, South Sudan, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali and Mauritania. Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and Sao Tome and Principe.
