African nations included in US travel ban due to ‘instability,’ terrorist concerns: state dept

Last week, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation aimed at limiting or suspending entry into the United States from countries deemed security threats. The move came in the wake of a terror attack in Colorado allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa. The attack targeted a pro-Israel group demonstrating in support of hostages held by Hamas.

"We will restore the travel ban, some people call it the Trump travel ban, and keep the radical Islamic terrorists out of our country that was upheld by the Supreme Court,” Trump said in a fact sheet released by the White House.

The full suspension of travel applies to nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Countries facing partial restrictions include Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Security experts have praised the administration’s action. Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News the list targets countries that deal with instability or that have poor diplomatic relations with the US.

“Most, if not all, of the African countries were added to this list either because of extreme instability and thus terrorist havens or because relations between them and the U.S. is either extremely poor or non-existent,” Roggio said. "For instance, the U.S. has been historically hard on Eritrea for its human rights abuses and also alleged support for terrorism. While in Chad, its military regime kicked the U.S. military out of its territory last year, further hurting the U.S. military posture in Africa.”