President Akufo-Addo has joined thousands across the world to condemn US President Donald Trump after he reportedly used crude language to describe African nations, Haiti and El Salvador.
Mr Trump described El Salvador, Haiti and certain African nations as “shithole” countries during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Thursday.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Mr Trump asked, after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from those countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. The Washington Post reported the remarks citing aides briefed on the meeting.
Trump demanded to know why the US would accept immigrants from these countries rather than places like Norway, whose prime minister he had met the day before.
Mr Trump has received international condemnation for his comment, one of those criticisms coming from Botswana, whose Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation called on the US’s ambassador to Botswana “to express its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by the President of the US.”
The ministry also asked the ambassador to clarify whether the US regarded Botswana as a “shithole” country, adding that Trump’s comments were “highly irresponsible, reprehensible, and racist.”
Mr Trump, on Friday, however, denied making those comments. “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!”
Reacting to the “shithole” comment in a Twitter message Saturday, Nana Akufo-Addo said: “The language of @RealDonaldTrump that African nations, Haiti and El Salvador are ‘shithole countries’ is extremely unfortunate.”
Akufo-Addo adds, “We will not accept such insults, even from the leader of a friendly country, no matter how powerful.”
Read tweet below:
The language of @realDonaldTrump that the African continent, Haiti and El Salvador are “shithole countries” is extremely unfortunate. We are certainly not a “shithole country”. We will not accept such insults, even from a leader of a friendly country, no matter how powerful.
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) January 13, 2018