US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Washington was considering lifting a travel ban on Chad, offering an olive branch to an ally in the fight against Islamist militant groups in West Africa.
The top US diplomat flew into the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, on the last day of a truncated tour of Africa with stops in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Nigeria - all frontline partners against Islamic State and al Qaeda offshoots.
It was his first diplomatic visit to the continent where many are still smarting from US President Donald Trump’s reported dismissal of states there as ‘shithole’ countries in January, reports the Reuters.
Trump later denied making the comment.
Tillerson said Chad had taken important steps to strengthen control over its security and passports. “These steps I think are going to allow us to begin to normalise the travel relationship with Chad,” he told reporters.
A report on Chad’s progress was being prepared in Washington and would be reviewed by Trump next month, Tillerson said. “We have to wait for the final report,” he added.
Tillerson, who met Chadian President Idriss Deby previously while serving as chief executive of ExxonMobil, said he was concerned about the presence of Islamic State-allied militants in the Sahel and called Chad an ‘important partner’.