Equatorial Guinea’s vice president has warned citizens from travelling to the United States, after President Donald Trump slapped a travel ban on the country.
“I recommend to my compatriots to stop going to the United States until the country reconsiders its decision,” Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, whose father Teodoro Obiang Nguema is president, said on Tuesday.
But despite the ban, which came into force on Monday, he insisted that Malabo had “excellent relations” with Washington and called the United States its “main economic partner and investor”.
Last month, the central African country confirmed it was in discussions with the United States to receive third country migrants as part of Trump’s plan for a massive programme of expulsions of undocumented migrants.
Eleven other countries were included on the travel ban list but Mangue said it “will have no impact on our country because fewer than 50 Equatorial Guineans go to the United States every year”.
Deogracias Ndong, a first-year medical student at the University of Equatorial Guinea, called the US decision “bad”.
“I have thought about going to study in the United States. They’ve got good training over there. For me it’s a discriminatory and racist decision by Donald Trump,” he told AFP.
Several African countries have expressed surprise and concern at their inclusion on the list.
Chad, which has imposed a tit-for-tat suspension of visas for US citizens, on Wednesday said it has begun “constructive dialogue” to address visa concerns, the foreign ministry said.
Nearly six in 10 young Africans are considering emigration in the next three years, mainly to find employment, according to a recent 16-country survey by the Johannesburg-based Ichikowitz Family Foundation.
The United States was their primary destination, it added. The US Embassy in Malabo said last week that 70 percent of students and 22 percent of tourists from Equatorial Guinea who travelled to the United States overstayed their visas.
Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, which is home to just 1.6 million people, was previously shielded from the youth exodus that has affected other African countries.
But the economy, hit by oil price falls, went into recession in 2023 and unemployment has reached 8.5 percent, according to the African Development Bank.
