Senegal ladies’s basketball coaching in US cancelled after visas rejected

A coaching session for the Senegalese ladies’s basketball crew within the US has been scrapped, with the West African nation’s prime minister saying he cancelled it as a result of among the squad have been denied US visas.

Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko stated the crew would now prepare in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting”.

It comes amid studies that the US plans to impose recent journey restrictions on 25 extra African international locations, together with Senegal.

Earlier this month the US introduced a ban on residents from 12 international locations, together with seven from Africa. There have been additionally partial journey restrictions on nationals from an additional seven international locations, with three from Africa.

It stays unclear why the Senegalese athletes have been denied visas, because the US Embassy is but to publicly touch upon the matter.

“Knowledgeable of the refusal of issuing visas to a number of members of the Senegal ladies’s nationwide basketball crew, I’ve instructed the Ministry of Sports activities to easily cancel the ten-day preparatory coaching initially deliberate in the US of America,” Sonko stated on Thursday in a press release shared to social media.

Stories say 5 Senegalese basketball gamers and 13 crew officers have been travelling to fulfill different members of the squad and their coach who have been already within the US, to heat up for the 2025 Girls’s AfroBasket event in Ivory Coast subsequent month.

However their visa functions weren’t authorized.

Senegal has probably the greatest ladies’s basketball groups in Africa – persistently reaching the ultimate 4 in AfroBasket tournaments and boasting gamers from prime leagues within the US, Europe and Egypt.

The visa refusals are elevating eyebrows as a result of, in response to the just lately leaked diplomatic cable containing particulars of the prolonged journey restrictions, focused international locations got as much as 60 days to handle the considerations raised by the US.

These reportedly embody individuals overstaying their visas, lack of co-operation with deportations, hyperlinks to terror assaults within the US, antisemitism or anti-American exercise.

Following the reported new journey restrictions, Senegal’s international ministry urged nationals to adjust to their permitted intervals of keep within the US.

Though it didn’t straight touch upon Senegal’s attainable inclusion within the newest listing of restricted international locations, the federal government assertion underscored that diplomatic and consular providers have been working in shut collaboration with the US administration.

In the meantime, Nigeria’s International Minister Yussuf Tuggar stated the expanded journey bans may impede attainable vitality and uncommon earth mineral offers which West African international locations can supply the US.

The Trump administration insists nationwide safety considerations and the excessive fee of visa overstays from some international locations should be addressed.