US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States “is no longer welcome in our great country.”

“Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates” President Donald Trump, Rubio alleged in a post on X.

“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA,” Rubio wrote. Declaring someone persona non grata (PNG) is a severe diplomatic rebuke and usually forces them to leave the host country.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa called the decision “regrettable” and expressed his commitment to building a “mutually beneficial relationship.”

“The Presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter,” Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.

Rubio’s post linked to an article from the right-wing news outlet Breitbart about Rasool’s comments to a think tank Friday about Trump’s election and presidency.

The PNG declaration against Rasool is the latest chapter in the plummeting relationship between the US and South Africa. There had been tensions between the two countries under the Biden administration. However, since Trump began his second term the US has taken a series of punitive measures against South Africa, whose government has been met with ire not only from Trump, but also his ally tech billionaire Elon Musk, who was born and raised in the country.

Both Trump and Musk have alleged that White farmers in the country are being discriminated against under land reform policies that South Africa’s government says are necessary to remedy the legacy of apartheid.

In the comments that seem to have triggered Rubio’s PNG declaration, Rasool was discussing the “continuities” from the Biden administration as well as the “discontinuities.”

“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency at home and … abroad as well,” said Rasool, who was on his second tour as ambassador to the US. He presented his credentials in mid-January to then President Joe Biden and previously served in Washington, DC, under the Obama administration.

He said that the Make America Great Again movement was a response “not simply to a supremacist instinct,” but to shifts in US demographics “in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white and that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon.”

“So that needs to be factored in, so that we understand some of the things that we think are instinctive, nativist, racist things, I think that there’s data that, for example, would support that, that would go to this wall being built, the deportation movement, etc. etc.,” he said as part of his nearly 20-minute-long remarks to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA).

Rasool said “it’s no accident” that Musk has involved himself in far-right British politics and that Vice President JD Vance met with the leader of a far-right German political party before the elections there.

“That then begins to say what was the role then of Afrikaners in that whole project,” he continued. “Very clearly it’s to project white victimhood as a dog whistle.”

In January, South Africa enacted the Expropriation Act, seeking to undo the legacy of apartheid, which created huge disparities in land ownership among its majority Black and minority White population.

Under apartheid, non-White South Africans were forcibly dispossessed from their lands for the benefit of Whites. Today, some three decades after racial segregation officially ended in the country, Black South Africans, who comprise over 80% of the population of 63 million, own only around 4% of private land.

The expropriation law empowers South Africa’s government to take land and redistribute it – with no obligation to pay compensation in some instances – if the seizure is found to be “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

Ramaphosa said the legislation would “ensure public access to land in an equitable and just manner.” But the White House disagrees and Trump and Musk believe the land reform policy discriminates against White South Africans.

The policy has prompted a strong reaction from the Trump administration.

In early February, Rubio announced he would not attend the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in Johannesburg, saying at the time that “South Africa is doing very bad things.”

“Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change,” the top US diplomat alleged. “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”

Just days later, Trump suspended aid to South Africa, alleging discrimination against White farmers. In that same executive order, the president said the US would “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.” Earlier this month, Trump said in a post on social media that “any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship.”

CNN’s Nimi Princewill and Lucas Lilieholm contributed to this report.

Sunday 15 March, 2025 {HMC}  Realizing us could be an’ announcement’ of this deal behind closed doors, a formal recognition of Somaliland by Washington was meandering amongst U.S. and Somaliland discussants: call up the Financial Times.

A senior U.S. official who spoke on the agreement of not having his name in print told the Financial Times that the Trump administration has already initiated discussions with Somaliland’s leadership in opening the door for formal recognition. But these talks are sensitive affairs, however, given that there are yet to be some vital appointments made by the Trump administration to oversee African affairs.

The reported discussions focus on U.S. interests in securing a long-term military presence at Berbera-superdeep-water-deep-water along the Gulf of Aden, and that has become a focal point of geopolitics competition in Eastern Africa.

The U.S. is now also concerned with the growing investment from China in the region, after the Chinese secured a military base in neighbouring Djibouti.

The actual details of the discussions remain unclear, but, according to the Financial Times, the proposal includes recognition by the U.S. of Somaliland as an independent state in exchange for exclusive rights to place a base in Berbera.

The report also suggested that during the talks the U.S. floated the possibility of moving displaced Palestinians out of Gaza into Somaliland, though it was not a central issue of the talks.

The offer follows on the heels of international outcry over a separate U.S.-Israeli plan to resettle Palestinians in African countries that most regional governments have broadly rejected. On Friday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi also denied that Mogadishu had been approached or engaged in dialogue on the resettling of Gazans in the country.

“The Federal Government of Somalia remains steadfastly with our Palestinian brethren and sisters in their legitimate struggle for sovereignty and self-determination.

Any plan aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land will not be endorsed by the federal government of Somalia.”

Sunday 15 March, 2025 {HMC} A British man has been killed in a hit-and-run incident involving a vehicle in the motorcade of Kenyan President William Ruto.

The man, who has been named as 79-year-old Edgar Riches, died on Thursday after being struck in the accident on a main road in the capital, Nairobi.

Police detained a driver, who has since been released on bail.

They say he was driving a support vehicle that was travelling at the rear of President Ruto’s official convoy.

According to the police, the president’s detail had passed by the time the accident occurred.

Police spokesman Michael Muchiri told the BBC that Mr Riches had been visiting Kenya to see his sister and nephew who are residents of the country.

Kenya’s police initially gave his name as Edgar Charles Frederick – using his middle names.

A post-mortem found he had suffered multiple trauma, including severe injuries to the chest and head.

He was a charity worker from Poole in Dorset, who had regularly raised money for projects Kenya.

The police said the driver, who failed to stop after the incident, would appear in court following an investigation.

There has been an uproar on social media following Thursday’s incident.

While Kenyans are accustomed to roads being cleared for the presidential motorcade, this time around some have questioned why the convoy was so big and moving at such speed.

This not the first time a president’s or deputy president’s motorcade has killed or injured a pedestrian, and in a number of cases, members of the president’s travelling party have died.

But some believe more attention is being paid to this latest case because the victim is a foreigner.

A spokesperson for the UK High Commission said officials were aware of the reports and were seeking more information.

Videos posted on social media show a man in blue jeans and a light-coloured shirt lying bleeding on the road outside a busy shopping area.

Other pictures show the victim covered in a checked shawl, known locally as a Maasai Shuka.

Mr Muchiri told the BBC the vehicle belonged to the regional administration and was providing support to the presidential detail.

President Ruto held events in the vicinity of the scene on Thursday as part of ongoing political engagements with the public in the capital.

Jason Burke in Jerusalem, and Mark Townsend

SOURCE 

Anne Soy

Saturday 15 March, 2025  {HMC} Sudanese officials say they have rejected a request from the US to discuss taking in Palestinians displaced from Gaza under Donald Trump’s plan to turn the territory into a “Riviera on the Mediterranean”.

According to an Associated Press report, the US and Israel contacted officials in Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland about resettling uprooted Palestinians. The contacts suggested both countries are determined to press ahead with Trump’s proposal despite international outrage and massive practical difficulties – or at least use the plan to force other actors in the region to come up with their own ideas for Gaza when hostilities finally end.

Two officials from war-torn Sudan confirmed to the Associated Press that the Trump administration had approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians.

One said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance in the army’s fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives. Both officials said the Sudanese government rejected the idea. “This suggestion was immediately rebuffed,” said one official. “No one opened this matter again.”

Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, Somalia’s foreign minister, did not confirm or deny any requests from Israel or the US but said Somalia rejected any plan that would involve the use of its territory for the resettlement of other populations or would undermine the Palestinian people’s right to live peacefully on their ancestral land.

Under Trump’s plan, Gaza’s more than 2 million residents would be permanently displaced to allow massive reconstruction as a high-end “international” leisure and business destination. Experts said any forced resettlement was illegal under international law.

Initially, Egypt and Jordan were suggested as destinations for displaced Palestinians, but both strenuously opposed the plan.

Palestinians in Gaza have also rejected the proposal and dismiss Israeli claims that the departures would be voluntary. Arab nations have offered an alternative multibillion-dollar reconstruction plan that would leave the Palestinians in place.

The White House says Trump “stands by his vision”.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials also described to the Associated Press news agency contacts with Somalia and the breakaway Somaliland region. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.

Outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan, according to the US officials, who said that Israel was taking the lead in the discussions.

Israeli officials and the White House have declined to comment on the efforts. The offices of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ron Dermer, the Israeli minister who has been leading Israel’s postwar planning, also had no comment.

Netanyahu has hailed Trump’s proposal as a “bold vision”, while Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister and a longtime advocate of what he calls “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians, has recently said that Israel was working to identify countries to take in Palestinians.

International legal experts have told the Guardian that, given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, any such emigration could be unlawful and potentially constitute a war crime.

Sudan was among the four Abraham accord nations that agreed to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 but was plunged almost immediately into a civil war marked by widespread atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the UN and rights groups.

US officials, seemingly aware that few Palestinians would be keen to relocate to such a precarious state, attempted to sweeten any deal by offering a range of incentives to Sudan’s government, including an offer of assistance to the army in its fight against the RSF which, in turn, is backed by the United Arab Emirates, a significant US ally.

The proposal, if accepted, would have meant the US backing a side it has accused of war crimes and joining the same side in the conflict as Russia, at a time when Vladimir Putin is contemplating the American proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Before the revelations, Sudan had already indicated it would not entertain any attempt to resettle Palestinians in a country coping with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The head of Sudan’s army and de facto president, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – subject of the US sanctions – last week told a summit in Cairo that his country “categorically rejects” any plan that aims to transfer “the brotherly Palestinians from their land under whatever justification or name”.

The Guardian has contacted Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs for comment.

Somaliland, a territory of more than 3 million people in the Horn of Africa, seceded from Somalia more than 30 years ago, but it is not internationally recognised as an independent state.

An American official involved in the efforts confirmed to the Associated Press that the US was “having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition”.

An official in Somaliland, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said his government had not been approached and was not in talks about taking in Palestinians.

Somalia is an even more unlikely destination. Mogadishu has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians, and joined the recent Arab summit that rejected Trump’s plan. A Somali official told the Associated Press the country had not been approached about taking in Palestinians from Gaza and there had been no discussions about it.

In recent years, Somalia has developed strong ties with Arab states and with Turkey. Much of the country is ruled by al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamist militia allied with al-Qaida.

Jason Burke in Jerusalem, and Mark Townsend