Mali and Burkina Faso announced total visa bans for U.S. citizens in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on U.S. visas for their nationals this month.
Two West African countries, both under military rule, on Tuesday became the latest African countries to ban the United States from issuing “retaliatory” visas. These follow President Trump’s new visa restrictions, which now apply to 39 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The White House said the measures were imposed for “national security” reasons.
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“In accordance with the principle of reciprocity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation informs the domestic and international community that the same conditions and requirements that the Government of the Republic of Mali imposes on Malian nationals apply immediately to U.S. nationals,” Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore similarly referred to the country’s reciprocity provisions regarding visa bans in a separate statement.
Which countries ban visas for U.S. citizens?
A U.S. directive issued on Dec. 16 extended a blanket ban on U.S. visas to nationals of five countries, excluding Mali and Burkina Faso: Laos, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Syria.
The order also barred travelers with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority from entering the United States.
The United States cited each country’s poor vetting and vetting capabilities, information sharing policies, visa overstay rates, and refusal to return nationals deported due to bans.
President Trump’s order also noted that countries would be additionally evaluated based on whether they have a “significant terrorist presence.”
The U.S. ban goes into effect Thursday.
Mali, Burkina Faso and neighboring Niger have long been plagued by violence by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS). Violence in these countries has displaced millions of civilians.
Niger on Friday barred U.S. citizens from entering the country, also citing the U.S. ban on its citizens. This country, like neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, is also a military-led country. The three countries formed the Alliance of Sahel Nations in July 2024 to address security issues and improve trade relations.
In its own retaliation, Chad stopped issuing visas to U.S. citizens on June 6, with the exception of U.S. officials. Currently, only U.S. citizens who were issued visas before June 9 are allowed to enter Chad.
The country was on an initial list of 12 countries that the Trump administration issued a blanket ban on visas for its citizens starting June 9.
Which countries are affected by the US visa ban?
According to the U.S.-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations, citizens of 39 countries are currently subject to full or partial entry restrictions to the United States.
The following are completely prohibited:
Afghanistan Burkina Faso Chad Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Haiti Iran Laos Libya Mali Myanmar Niger Republic of the Congo Sierra Leone Somalia South Sudan Sudan Syria Yemen Holders of travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority will also be completely banned.
The following are partially restricted:
Angola Antigua and Barbuda Benin Burundi Cuba Dominica Gabon Gambia Ivory Coast Malawi Mauritania Nigeria Senegal Tanzania Togo Tonga Turkmenistan Venezuela Zambia Zimbabwe
Is President Trump specifically targeting African countries with visa bans?
President Trump’s approach to Africa regarding visa entry in his second term as US president is similar to that of his first administration, which issued a “Muslim ban” targeting citizens of three African countries: Somalia, Sudan, and Libya, as well as Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
A subsequent ban update removed Sudan and added Chad.
Since President Trump took office on January 20, most of the countries that have been subject to US entry restrictions are in Africa. Of the 39 countries affected, 26 are African countries.
What happened to the U.S.-Africa trade relationship under the Trump administration?
On the trade front, the United States has moved from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) preferential trade program to a tariff-based system that also applies to most countries around the world under President Trump’s tariff policy.
Starting in 2000, AGOA provided African countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market, boosting African exports to the U.S. of products ranging from wine to automobiles.
According to the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, AGOA has created an estimated 300,000 jobs in African countries and indirectly sustained another 1.2 million jobs.
However, AGOA expired in September because the U.S. Congress failed to renew it. The Trump administration has said it supports a one-year extension, but no steps have been announced to revive the program.
Instead, African countries now often face high tariffs because the US sometimes justifies them for political reasons.
For example, South Africa, Africa’s richest country, was slapped with 30% tariffs after President Trump was debunked as a “genocide” against the country’s white Afrikaner minority. Since then, the U.S. government has made it a priority to resettle Afrikaners as refugees in the United States.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Trump at the White House in May and explained that crimes in the country target the entire population, not just white people, but he was unable to convince Trump.
The Trump administration has also prioritized access to critical rare earth minerals used to develop high-tech equipment to remain competitive with China, which mines about 60% of the world’s rare earth metals and processes 90% of them.
Earlier this year, President Trump served as a mediator in the dispute between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighboring Rwanda after the government proposed a minerals deal with the United States. The United States and the United Nations have accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Trump did not commit to U.S. military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but after applying diplomatic pressure on Rwanda, he was able to conclude a peace agreement between the two countries on December 4.
Despite the peace agreement, M23 attacks on civilians continue.
Terms of the agreement granted U.S. companies preferential access to mineral reserves in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, including cobalt, copper, lithium and gold.
What about aid and security cooperation?
In early 2025, the Trump administration shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and cut billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, impacting many African countries that were heavily dependent on the world’s largest health and humanitarian aid donor.
Aid groups have since reported rising hunger in northern Nigeria, Somalia and northeastern Kenya.
Health observers and analysts have also warned of the risk of undermining efforts to prevent and contain the spread of HIV in Lesotho and South Africa.
In northern Cameroon, authorities report a sharp rise in malaria deaths as medicine supplies dwindle. This month, the United States unilaterally pledged $400 million in health funding to Cameroon over the next five years, provided Cameroon increases its annual health spending from $22 million to $450 million.
African countries were also the most affected when President Trump last week recalled 30 career diplomats from 29 countries appointed by former President Joe Biden.
Fifteen of them were stationed in African countries: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to step up attacks against armed groups associated with ISIL and al-Qaeda, just as it did during President Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.
According to the New America Foundation, a US-based think tank, the US launched attacks in Somalia in September targeting al-Shabab and ISIL affiliates in Somalia state.
The United States also targeted ISIL and al-Qaeda-linked groups in northwestern Nigeria for the first time on Thursday.
Although these strikes were carried out in cooperation with the Nigerian government, a war of words developed between the two countries.
The United States claims to be “saving” Christians in Nigeria, who it says are experiencing genocide.
Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities deny claims of genocide and say people of all faiths are badly affected by armed groups operating in the country.
