Sudanese and Ethiopian families who won a lottery allowing them to move to the US have sued the government over delays in processing their entry visas.
The 12 families in the lawsuit – referred to as Tesfaye vs Blinken – say the US government is unlawfully withholding their visa-hearing process by refusing to reassign the cases to other embassies away from the ones in Khartoum and Addis Ababa, which have not resumed routine visa processing.
Under the US Immigration and Nationality Act, all winners of the Diversity Visa programme must be scheduled for immigrant visa interviews before the end of the fiscal year, which is 30 September, unless a court intervenes.
One of the lawyers representing the families says they have “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become permanent residents” but the government “keeps de-prioritising” their cases.
“If their visas are not issued by September 30, they lose a golden opportunity and so does the United States,” says Curtis Lee Morrison.
Rafael Urena, another lawyer, says the US has “failed to live up to its commitments to the African diaspora. Particularly, to Diversity Visa applicants”.
A similar case by Iraqi lottery winners in December saw the interview location of the families changed, and the suit was eventually withdrawn.
The Diversity Visa lottery is responsible for the largest percentage of African and black immigration to the US.
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The Rwandan ambassador selling coffee on TikTok
Rwanda’s ambassador to China, James Kimonyo, has embraced social media to market coffee and chilli from the east African country.
Mr Kimonyo told BBC Focus on Africa radio that he had to move away from the traditional way of advertising in exhibitions after seeing that China’s online shopping industry was huge.
The ambassador last month caused a stir on social media when he donned an overall and rode on a delivery bike to deliver Rwandan coffee to a customer who had purchased online.
“China’s TikTok economy is about $5.4 trillion and not only that, China is the biggest internet user and it has largest number of online shoppers and is well connected – with 99% of the population owning mobile phones and the mobile payments systems here are very effective,” he told the BBC.
Mr Kimonyo has been in Beijing for three years and says this is the new way to conduct diplomacy in an evolving world.
“When you are posted in a mission like this, which is big like China, and you know its a big market – very focused on business – what you do is to go out there and take advantage of what is happening,” he said.
Source: BBC
