The LGBTIQ+ flag A Lesotho-based LGBTQIA+ community has denied receiving US funding
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Lesotho's main LGBTQ rights organisation, the People's Matrix, on Wednesday said that it had not received eight million dollars in US funding as claimed by US President Donald Trump.
In his address to the US Congress on Tuesday, Trump singled out a past US aid project of "eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho", which he described as a country "nobody has ever heard of".
"We are literally not receiving grants from the US," People's Matrix spokesperson Tampose Mothopeng told AFP.
"We have no idea of the allocation of eight million" dollars, he said. "We do not know who received or is going to receive that money."
"We do not have such moneys or a contract that would even reach a quarter of half of that money," he added.
The US government foreign assistance website did not list any financial support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million people.
Instead, it indicated that about 120 million dollars had been spent on "health and population" programmes in the country in 2024, including $43.5 million to tackle HIV/AIDS.
The small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world, with almost one in four adults HIV-positive.
The US has committed more than $630 million since 2006 to anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in Lesotho, according to the US embassy there.
More than 30 non-governmental organisations warned in mid-February that the country's HIV programmes were at risk of collapse following the loss of US foreign aid.
On Wednesday morning, Lesotho residents woke up confused at Trump's jab at their country.
"Ever heard of Kingdom in the Sky? Guess not, too busy golfing to notice," journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse posted on social media platform X.
"Lesotho's the only country in the world entirely above 1,000 metres elevation, higher than your approval ratings ever got," he posted, adding: "We're here, we're proud, and we're not your punchline."
AFP
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