Somalia's president criticises new US ban

(7 Mar 2017) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an emergency visit to Somalia on Tuesday to highlight the country's famine crisis and met with the new president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Somalia is one of the six Muslim-majority countries affected by the new travel ban ordered by US President Donald Trump. Mohamed said he was disappointed about the travel ban, and highlighted the contribution made by the Somali community to the US economy. But he acknowledged that the Somali government needed to tackle the root cause of extremism by focusing on "how to defeat (Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels) al Shabaab here." Welcoming the UN chief, Mohamed said: "My first priority is to address this drought crisis and my main priority is to make an appeal to the international community to help us." Guterres urged international support to provide food and humanitarian aid to Somalia. Somalia is part of a massive 4 billion US aid appeal launched last month for four nations suffering from conflict and hunger. The others are Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan, where famine already has been declared. Somalia over the weekend announced its first death toll since declaring a national disaster last week, saying 110 people had died in a 48-hour period in a single region. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in Somalia need aid, amid warnings of a famine. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d49b8ed6f9b0aa9294885cd1539494f4 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork