Airline passengers who are citizens of, or fly through, five African nations will undergo more intensive security screening from today before being permitted to board flights to the United States. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced the new “enhanced screening” on Sunday.
According to Monday’s editions of the New York Times and the Washington Post, the five African nations affected are Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.
Nine other nations – most of them in Asia or the Middle East – are also covered by the TSA’s directive, which applies to "nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest." Sudan is regarded by the U.S. as a "state sponsor of terrorism." The Washington Post named the other African countries affected as "countries of interest to U.S. intelligence agencies."
The Post also reported that in a directive to airlines on the tougher screening measure, the TSA had emphasized a "full body pat-down and physical inspection of property". The TSA’s public statement said the directive applies to "every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through" the affected countries.
The directive follows the arrest of a Nigerian for attempting to set off a bomb on an airliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. It was issued as former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made an appeal urging the international community not to judge all Nigerians by the actions of one person.
