 "People of Lesotho performs traditional dance. AFP")
During his Tuesday night address to Congress, US President Donald Trump took jabs at a Southern African nation which rarely makes headlines. The president defended his administration’s humanitarian aid cuts to countries around the globe, including one nation he joked “nobody has ever heard of.”
The country was Lesotho . In response to Trump’s remarks, the country’s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told NPR it was “quite shocking for the head of state to make such a remark.” “The government of the United States has an embassy in Maseru [Lesotho’s capital],” Mpotjoane said on Wednesday, adding that the two countries have had “a long cooperation.”
He went on to invite Trump to visit the country. Last fall, Trump’s ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk, met Lesotho’s prime minister and discussed the provision of internet access solutions in the country. Here’s a look at 9 things to know about the Southern African nation.
- US’s helping hand in Lesotho’s fight against AIDS
In his Tuesday address, Trump said that the US had sent “$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.” Much of the money USAID has sent to Lesotho goes toward HIV prevention. The United Nations says almost a quarter of the population is living with the virus.
- The country is surrounded by another country
The country is fully encircled by South Africa but is separated from its neighbouring state by the forbidding mountain ranges. The population of Lesotho is vulnerable to food shortage since not much of its land is available for farming.
The people of Lesotho also rely on South African jobs, and their language, Sesotho, is also one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. More people speak it in South Africa (4.6 million - than in Lesotho.
- Poor nations with the biggest resources of ‘White gold’
Due to its harsh environment, Lesotho is not known to be rich in resources. The country’s biggest resource is water - known locally as white gold - which is exported to South Africa. Diamonds are another major export.
- The country with the world’s highest suicide rate
The country, fondly called the ‘kingdom of the sky’, also has the world’s highest suicide rate, with 87.5 people per 100,000 of the population taking their own life every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is nearly 10 times the global average of nine and more than double the country with the second highest rate, which is Guyana. Experts believe that drugs and alcohol, the shortage of jobs and the lack of mental health counselling are the main reasons behind such rates.
- It exports jeans to the US
The country is known to export jeans to the United States. According to BBC, Lesotho’s garment factories have made jeans for iconic American brands such as Levi’s and Wrangler in recent years. As a result, Lesotho has become known as the “denim capital of Africa”. Apart from this, Lesotho is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest exporters of clothing to the US. Interestingly, many of Lesotho’s clothing and textile factories are owned by Chinese and Taiwanese migrants.
With inputs from agencies.