Former Somali president hit by Trump travel ban, denied U.S. visa

Former Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been denied a United States visa ahead of a lecture on the state of his country in Maine.

According to the organisers of the lecture, World Council Affairs of Maine (WCM), Mohamud was denied visa under Trump’s Executive Order 13769 that restricts admission of citizens from seven countries including Libya, Somalia and Sudan to protect the U.S. from foreign terrorists.

‘‘We regret to share that H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was denied visa issuance by the U.S. Consulate in Somalia under Executive Order 13769, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” WCM said in a Facebook statement last week.

The lecture, which has since been cancelled, was scheduled to take place on Tuesday under the theme “Somalia the Crossroads: Opportunities and Challenges Post-Civil War”.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has not reacted to the incident as this is his second time in the year to be denied a visa to a foreign country, reports Africanews which said in February, he cancelled a similar invitation to address a lecture in Sweden after the country’s Embassy in Ankara, Turkey declined to stamp the visa in his passport.

The former Somali president has visited the United States on several occasion as head of state. However, most Scandinavian countries do not recognize the Somali passport since the fall of the central government in 1991.

The current Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo holds a dual U.S. and Somali citizenship. He has pledged to help lift the travel ban.