U.S. warns against travels to 7 African countries

The American Department of State categorised 21 nations under its Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory, including seven African countries as of December 2024.

The seven African nations in the “Do Not Travel” category in the U.S. travel website (https://travel.state.gov/) are Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic.

The designations, which are updated regularly, indicate extreme risks such as armed conflict, terrorism, crime, and civil unrest, making these destinations unsafe for travel.

The travel advisory system is usually divided into four levels according to risk level respectively.

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In the travel warning for Libya issued on August 1, 2024, the U.S. government raised concerns about crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, and ongoing armed conflicts in the country.

The U.S. cited Crime, terrorism, and kidnapping in the advisory against Mali which was updated on July 31, 2023. 

It also raised concerns about crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health risks, kidnapping, and piracy while updating the travel advisory for Somalia on July 23, 2024.

The U.S. also said that Sudan and South Sudan were flagged on July 31 2023 due to crime, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, crime carjackings, and robberies.

The U.S. Embassy in Juba, South Sudan operates under strict security protocols, limiting consular services.

The advisory for Burkina Faso which was last updated on June 31, 2023, cited reasons such as terrorism, crime, and kidnapping.

The U.S. warned that the Central African Republic (CAR) was plagued with armed conflict, crime, civil unrest, and kidnapping in the advisory last updated on December 26, 2024.