AU chief overlooks Trump’s insult
The AU head tells Rex Tillerson that a letter from Donald Trump reaffirming his commitment to Africa ‘put the incident in the past’
Addis Ababa — Washington’s top diplomat began his first Africa tour Thursday by meeting with the African Union chief, who said the continent had moved on from a reported insult by President Donald Trump. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and AU commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed security and counter-terrorism, trade and development, corruption and conflict in an hour-long meeting at the continental body’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital. But looming over the meeting was Trump’s alleged description of African nations as "shithole countries" in January, which forced the president to pen a letter reaffirming his commitment to the continent. Faki, however, insisted the slur was now in the past. "I received a letter written by President Trump to myself and I shared that with other African leaders. I believe this incident is of the past," he said. Tillerson’s five-nation Africa tour — to include Djibouti, Kenya, Chad and Nigeria, all key allies in fighting Islamic extr...
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