African Union slams U.S. for taking its people 'as slaves' but not as refugees

The chief of the 54-nation African Union on Monday offered a stark denunciation of President Trump's recent executive order on immigration. The order, signed Friday, blocks people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including the African nations of Libya, Somalia, and Sudan, from traveling to the U.S. "The very country to which many of our people were taken as slaves during the transatlantic slave trade has now decided to ban refugees from some of our countries," said African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma during the bloc's two-day summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Dlamini Zuma warned the African Union that it was entering "very turbulent times." "What do we do about this?" she said of the new U.S. policy. "This is one of the greatest challenges to our unity and solidarity."

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