Maseru:
Lesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister said Wednesday, as the country’s main LGBTQ rights organisation denied receiving funds from Washington.
Trump called Lesotho a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid during an address to Congress Tuesday.
He singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho”.
“Which nobody has ever heard of,” he added, as Republican lawmakers laughed.
The Lesotho government was “shocked and embarrassed” by the comments, Foreign Minister Lejone Mpotjoane told AFP.
“We did not expect a head of state to refer to another sovereign nation in such a manner,” he said.
The US has an embassy in the capital Maseru, and American volunteers serve in the popular Peace Corps programme.
“We are not taking this matter lightly,” Mpotjoane said, adding that they will send an official protest letter to Washington.
– ‘Not receiving’ US grants –
Which exact programme Trump was referring to remained unclear on Wednesday.
Lesotho’s main LGBTQ rights organisation, the People’s Matrix, denied receiving eight million dollars in US funding.
“We are literally not receiving grants from the US,” People’s Matrix spokesperson Tampose Mothopeng told AFP.
“We have no idea of the allocation of eight million (dollars),” he said. “We do not know who received or is going to receive that money.”
“We do not have such moneys or a contract that would even reach a quarter of half of that money,” he added.
The US government foreign assistance website did not list any financial support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million people.
Instead, it indicated that about 120 million dollars had been spent on “health and population” programmes in the country in 2024, including $43.5 million to tackle HIV/AIDS.
The small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world, with almost one in four adults HIV-positive.
The US has committed more than $630 million since 2006 to anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in Lesotho, according to the US embassy there.
More than 30 non-governmental organisations warned in mid-February that the country’s HIV programmes were at risk of collapse following the loss of US foreign aid.
On Wednesday morning, Lesotho residents woke up confused at Trump’s jab at their country.
“Ever heard of Kingdom in the Sky? Guess not, too busy golfing to notice,” journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse posted on social media platform X.
“Lesotho’s the only country in the world entirely above 1,000 metres elevation, higher than your approval ratings ever got,” he posted, adding: “We’re here, we’re proud, and we’re not your punchline.”
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