President Donald Trump has said no United States officials will attend this year’s Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said it was a “total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.

“Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote, reiterating claims that have been rejected by authorities in South Africa.

“No US Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly claimed that white South Africans are being persecuted in the Black-majority country, a claim rejected by South Africa’s government and top Afrikaner officials.

Trump had already said on Wednesday that he would not attend the summit – which will see the heads of states from the world’s leading and emerging economies gather in Johannesburg on November 22 and 23 – as he also called for South Africa to be thrown out of the G20.

US Vice President JD Vance had been expected to attend the meeting in place of the president. But a person familiar with Vance’s plans told The Associated Press news agency that he will no longer travel to South Africa.

Tensions first arose between the US and South Africa after President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a new law in January seeking to address land ownership disparities, which have left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority more than three decades after the end of apartheid.

[Aljazeera]

Attackers firing machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades have boarded a ship off the coast of Somalia, United Kingdom officials say of the latest assault, likely by resurgent Somali pirates, in the region.

“The Master of a vessel has reported being approached by 1 small craft on its stern. The small craft fired small arms and RPG’s towards the vessel,” the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said in an alert issued on Thursday. It warned ships in the area to “transit with caution”.

The private security firm Ambrey also said an attack was under way, saying it targeted a Malta-flagged tanker heading from Sikka, India, to Durban, South Africa.

Ambrey added that it appeared to be an assault by Somali pirates, who are reported to be operating in the area in recent days and who seized an Iranian fishing boat to use as a base of operations. Iran has not acknowledged the seizure of the fishing boat, called the Issamohamadi.

Details of the vessel attacked on Thursday correspond to the Hellas Aphrodite, which changed its track and slowed down at the time of the attack. The ship’s owners and managers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Another maritime security firm, the Diaplous Group, said the attacked tanker had a crew of 24 mariners, all of whom reportedly locked themselves into the ship’s citadel for safety during the attack. The vessel did not have an armed security team on board it, the firm added.

The European Union’s Operation Atalanta, a counterpiracy mission around the Horn of Africa, has responded to other recent pirate attacks in the area and issued a recent alert to shippers that a pirate group was operating off Somalia and assaults were “almost certain” to happen.

Thursday’s attack came after another vessel, the Cayman Islands-flagged Stolt Sagaland, found itself targeted in a suspected pirate attack that involved both its armed security force and the attackers shooting at each other, the EU force said.

Piracy off Somalia peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported. Somali piracy in the region in 2011 cost the world’s economy about $7bn with $160m paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols, a strengthened central government in Somalia and other efforts.

However, Somali piracy has surged again since late 2023. According to Solace Global Risk, a travel risk management company, the decline in antipiracy patrols and the relocation of funds to counter Houthi rebels activities contributed to the rise in attacks.

In 2024, there were seven reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. So far this year, multiple fishing boats have been seized by Somali pirates.

[Aljazeera]