CGTN challenges Tillerson on Trump's ‘shithole’ remark

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Europe

Rex Tillerson’s first visit to Africa as US secretary of state got off to a bad start at a press conference on Thursday when a CGTN journalist asked him about a derogatory comment President Donald Trump reportedly made about the continent.

At the event in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Girum Chala asked Tillerson and Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, whether the US owed Africans an apology after reports that Trump labeled Haiti and other African nations “shithole countries” during a meeting in the Oval Office on January 20.

“I think the United States’ commitment to Africa is quite clear in terms of the importance we place on the relationship. The president himself wrote a personal letter to the chairperson, reaffirming the importance of this relationship,” replied Tillerson.

Bloomberg judged that he had declined to address the question.

Chairperson of African Union Comission Moussa Faki Mahamat /CGTN Photo

Moussa Faki Mahamat confirmed receipt of the letter and said he believed “this incident is of the past.”

Tillerson arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday to begin a one-week long visit to Africa, although he cancelled scheduled events on Saturday on the second day of a visit to Kenya, with the State Department blaming ill health.