PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti on Friday expressed shock at reports that US President Donald Trump referred to the Caribbean nation as a “*hithole,” and summoned the top US diplomat in the country for an explanation.
Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as “*hithole countries,” according to two sources familiar with the comments.
On Friday, the Republican president denied using those words. But Democratic US Senator Dick Durbin, who attended a White House meeting on immigration the previous day, confirmed to reporters that Trump used “vile, vulgar” language, including “*hithole.”
African politicians labeled Trump a racist, while the United Nations human rights office rejected the reported comments as “racist” and inciting xenophobia.
Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, Paul Altidor, said it was distressing that attention was drawn to the comments on Friday, the eighth anniversary of a devastating earthquake believed to have killed 220,000 people on the island, and should be a day of remembrance.
“I spoke with President Jovenel Moise about the issue, and, of course, the president condemns such language and he is shocked.”
Altidor said Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Rodrigue told him the US chargé d’affaires in Haiti had been summoned to provide an explanation about the reported comments.
The ambassador said Haiti should be remembered for its contributions to history, including supporting the American Revolution by sending troops to the Battle of Savannah in Georgia in 1779.
“Haitians don’t deserve such treatment,” Altidor said. “Haitians should not be seen as a bunch of immigrants who come to the United States to exploit US resources.
“We have been here for a long time and have contributed to what the United States is today. We even made the ultimate sacrifice when we shed our blood in Savannah.”
Haiti ‘shocked’ by Trump comments, summons US envoy
Haiti ‘shocked’ by Trump comments, summons US envoy
Islamist militants show ‘unprecedented coordination’ in Burkina Faso attacks
- The assaults were on several towns in the north and east including Bilanga, Titao, Tandjari and Nare
- The operations targeted military detachments, civilian convoys and market areas
DAKAR: Islamist militants have killed dozens of soldiers and civilians and overrun an army detachment over the past week in coordinated attacks across multiple regions of Burkina Faso, according to internal reports by two diplomatic missions reviewed by Reuters.
The operations by Al Qaeda–linked Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin show the JNIM is increasingly able to mobilize across large swathes of territory at one time, said the reports, which described a list of locations and places that came under assault.
Burkina Faso’s military rulers seized power in a coup in 2022, promising to improve security. But militants’ attacks have increased in the West African country as state forces battle an insurgency that has spread across the Sahel from Mali.
The assaults were on several towns in the north and east including Bilanga, Titao, Tandjari and Nare, the diplomatic reports said. One also described an assault in the eastern city of Fada N’Gourma and flagged another in the northern Ouahigouya area.
“These attacks, which were almost simultaneous and spread across several provinces, demonstrate unprecedented coordination between militants and the junta’s inability to contain the assaults,” said one of the internal reports, which put the death toll at more than 180.
The other gave no toll but said the incidents appeared coordinated and involved several hundred militants serving JNIM and possibly Daesh affiliates.
The operations targeted military detachments, civilian convoys and market areas, it said.
JNIM has said it killed scores of troops from the Burkinabe army in attacks in the past week, US-based SITE Intelligence Group said on Monday.
Burkina authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the assaults or casualty reports.
INJURED GHANAIANS RETURN HOME
In the northern town of Titao, militants attacked an army base and set a market on fire, the internal reports said.
Nearly 80 soldiers and pro-government militia members were killed, one said. The other said about 10 civilians were killed there.
The dead civilians included eight tomato traders, Ghana’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
SITE quoted a media unit for JNIM as saying the insurgents had seized military vehicles, guns and other possessions in the assaults. More than a decade of insurgencies in the Sahel has displaced millions and engendered economic collapse, with violence pushing further south toward West Africa’s coast.
JNIM claimed nearly 500 attacks in Burkina Faso in 2025 and nearly 300 in Mali, SITE’s director, Rita Katz, said in a social media post on LinkedIn.
