Interesting revelations have emerged indicating that all African delegates who were supposed to attend the annual African Global Economic and Development Summit were blocked from attending the event held in California, United States (US).
The 100 delegates were shocked to be informed that their Visa applications to attend the trade meeting had been rejected just days to the event and no explanation was offered for the inconvenience.
The act that has been termed as a "discrimination issue" affected business people as well as government officials who had confirmed their attendance.
"I have to say that most of us feel it's a discrimination issue with the African nations. We experience it over and over and over," explained Mary Flowers, the summit's organizer. She also added that this year's attendance was the worst with zero African representation, compared to previous years where only a few delegates failed to attend.
The Trump administration recently issued a travel ban to citizens from Somalia, Libya and Sudan. The delegates affected by the incident were nationals of Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa.
When contacted for a comment on the matter, the US State Department declined to respond stating that they were not authorised to discuss individual Visa cases.
