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N’DJAMENA. – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was hopeful that Chad could be removed from the Trump administration’s travel restriction list.

Tillerson was speaking at a joint news conference with Chad’s Foreign Minister Mahamat Zene (zen) Cherif in the country’s capital, N’Djamena (en-jah-mee-nah).

Tillerson said the visa restrictions were necessary because of “all the conflict that exists on Chad’s borders”.

He said Chad has taken important, positive steps to strengthen control over its passports and improve information-sharing. He says he believes those steps will “allow us to begin to normalise the travel relationship with Chad.”

But he says the decision will have to await a final report the US will prepare later in March.

Zene says that Chad’s President Idriss Deby “expressed his incomprehension” to Tillerson about the restrictions. – AP