Trump's South Africa genocide claim 'inappropriate': UN rights body
Trump repeated his allegation in talks at the Oval Office Wednesday with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The US leader played videos and brandished news articles he said proved his claim that white farmers are being systematically targeted in South Africa.
President Ramaphosa was in Washington D.C. in the United States of America on 21 May 2025 for a working visit at the invitation of US President Donald Trump. Picture: Elmond Jiyane/GCIS
GENEVA - US President Donald Trump's claim that South Africa is facing a "white genocide" are "wholly inappropriate", a UN rights spokesperson said Friday.
"These are very serious issues. One should not use this word (genocide) casually without deep knowledge of what this means. Looking at the history of South Africa, it is wholly inappropriate," said Ravina Shamdasani, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson in Geneva.
Trump repeated his allegation in talks at the Oval Office Wednesday with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The US leader played videos and brandished news articles he said proved his claim that white farmers are being systematically targeted in South Africa.
Ramaphosa roundly disputed the authenticity of some of the material.
One article in fact featured a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo, suggesting Trump's allegations distorted the facts.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, but whites do not make up a disproportionate number of victims.
AfriForum, an identity group representing the white Afrikaner minority, recorded 49 murders of farmers in 2023, without distinction of ethnicity - a minute proportion of 27,621 murders South African police recorded in total between April 2023 and March 2024.
Trump's administration earlier this month granted refugee status to more than 50 Afrikaners - descendants of Dutch settlers - despite the fact it has effectively stopped taking asylum seekers from the rest of the world.