A coaching camp for the Senegalese ladies’s basketball workforce within the US has been scrapped, with the West African nation’s prime minister saying he cancelled it as a result of among the squad have been denied US visas.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko mentioned the workforce would now practice in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting”.
It comes amid reviews that the US plans to impose recent journey restrictions on 25 extra African nations, together with Senegal.
Earlier this month the US introduced a ban on residents from 12 nations, together with seven from Africa. There have been additionally partial journey restrictions on nationals from an extra seven nations, with three from Africa.
It stays unclear why the Senegalese athletes have been denied visas, because the US Embassy is but to publicly touch upon the matter.
“Knowledgeable of the refusal of issuing visas to a number of members of the Senegal ladies’s nationwide basketball workforce, I’ve instructed the Ministry of Sports activities to easily cancel the ten-day preparatory coaching initially deliberate in the USA of America,” Sonko mentioned on Thursday in an announcement shared to social media.
Experiences say 5 Senegalese basketball gamers and 13 workforce officers have been travelling to satisfy different members of the squad and their coach who have been already within the US, to heat up for the 2025 Girls’s AfroBasket match in Ivory Coast subsequent month.
However their visa functions weren’t accredited.
Senegal has among the best ladies’s basketball groups in Africa – persistently reaching the ultimate 4 in AfroBasket tournaments and boasting gamers from high leagues within the US, Europe and Egypt.
The visa refusals are elevating eyebrows as a result of, in line with the just lately leaked diplomatic cable containing particulars of the prolonged journey restrictions, focused nations got as much as 60 days to deal with the issues raised by the US.
These reportedly embrace folks overstaying their visas, lack of co-operation with deportations, hyperlinks to terror assaults within the US, antisemitism or what it termed “anti-American” exercise.
Following the reported new journey restrictions, Senegal’s overseas ministry urged nationals to adjust to their permitted intervals of keep within the US.
Though it didn’t immediately touch upon Senegal’s potential inclusion within the newest checklist of restricted nations, the federal government assertion underscored that diplomatic and consular providers have been working in shut collaboration with the US administration.
In the meantime, Nigeria’s Overseas Minister Yussuf Tuggar mentioned the expanded journey bans may impede potential power and uncommon earth mineral offers which West African nations can provide the US.
The Trump administration insists nationwide safety issues and the excessive charge of visa overstays from some nations should be addressed.
