Lesotho 'shocked and embarrassed' by Trump's Congress speech mockery, says foreign minister.
Lesotho was caught aback by US President Donald Trump's ridicule of the southern African nation, according to its foreign minister, who promised that the government will "not take this matter lightly."
During an address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump defended his broad assistance cuts by referring to Lesotho as a country that "nobody has ever heard of." He cited a previous US aid effort of "eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho."
Lesotho's foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told AFP on Wednesday that the statements "shocked and embarrassed" the administration.
"Which nobody has ever heard of," he said, to the laughter of Republican members.
Lesotho's foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told AFP on Wednesday that the statements "shocked and embarrassed" the administration.
"We did not expect a head of state to refer to another sovereign nation in such a manner," he told reporters.
The US has an embassy in Maseru, and American volunteers work in the popular Peace Corps program.
"We are not taking this matter lightly," Mpotjoane stated, adding that they would submit an official protest letter to Washington.
The country's major LGBTQ rights organization denied getting cash from Washington, and the particular program Trump was referring to remained unclear on Wednesday.
"We literally are not receiving grants from the US," People's Matrix representative Tampose Mothopeng stated.
"We have no idea of the allocation of eight million [dollars]," according to him. The US government's foreign assistance website did not include any funding support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a country of 2.3 million people. Instead, it stated that approximately $120 million would be spent on "health and population" programs in the country in 2024, including $43.5 million to combat HIV/AIDS.
The small mountainous monarchy surrounded by South Africa has the world's second-highest HIV infection rate, with nearly one in every four persons testing positive. According to the US embassy in Lesotho, the US has committed more than $630 million in anti-HIV/AIDS initiatives since 2006. In mid-February, more than 30 non-governmental organizations warned that the country's HIV campaigns were in danger of collapsing due to the loss of US foreign aid.
When Trump suspended nearly all US foreign aid at the beginning of February, volunteers in Lesotho were told to discontinue any HIV-related prevention activity, according to emails acquired by the Guardian at the time.
On Wednesday morning, Lesotho people were perplexed by Trump's remark.
"Have you heard of Kingdom in the Sky?" "Guess not, too busy golfing to notice," journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse wrote on social networking platform X.
"Lesotho's the only country in the world entirely above 1,000 meters elevation, higher than your approval ratings ever got," he said. He further said: "We're here, we're proud, and we're not your punchline."