Johannesburg — Lesotho’s foreign minister said on Wednesday (March 5) that he was astonished and humiliated by US President Donald Trump’s statement that no one had heard of the African country, and welcomed him to visit. In his address to the US Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump cited Lesotho while describing some of the foreign funding cuts he has made as “appalling waste”. “Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump stated, eliciting laughter from Congress.

Lesotho’s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, described the comment as “quite insulting”. “I’m really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state,” he told a news agency. Lesotho, a mountainous nation of about two million inhabitants surrounded by South Africa, has the greatest average altitude of any country and is also known as The Kingdom in the Sky. “Lesotho is one of the world’s most significant and unique countries. “I would be delighted to invite the president and the rest of the world to visit Lesotho,” Mpotjoane said. He stated that while some civil society organisations financed by the US Embassy in Lesotho seek to support the LGBT+ community, the United States also plays an essential role , but the United States also provided important funding for the country’s health and agriculture sectors.