Lesotho has declared a two-year national state of disaster in response to soaring unemployment, triggered by a sharp economic blow from US-imposed tariffs. In April, former US President Donald Trump reinstated a\u00a050% tariff on goods from Lesotho, a move that has devastated the country\u2019s textile industry\u2014one of its biggest employers.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister\u00a0Nthomeng Majara\u00a0announced the emergency measure, noting the unemployment rate has now hit\u00a030%, with thousands losing their jobs in recent months. The state of disaster will remain in effect until\u00a0June 30, 2027, allowing the government to take urgent action to cushion the economic shock and prevent further social fallout.<\/p>\n
Lesotho, a small, landlocked nation surrounded by South Africa, had previously enjoyed duty-free access to US markets under trade agreements like AGOA. The sudden shift has severely impacted exports and local livelihoods.<\/p>\n
Authorities now hope to attract new investment, diversify the economy, and seek international support to navigate what they call an unfolding economic emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lesotho has declared a two-year national state of disaster in response to soaring unemployment, triggered by a sharp economic blow from US-imposed tariffs. In April, former US President Donald Trump reinstated a\u00a050% tariff on goods from Lesotho, a move that has devastated the country\u2019s textile industry\u2014one of its biggest employers. Deputy Prime Minister\u00a0Nthomeng Majara\u00a0announced the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2362,30],"tags":[1653,1643,77],"class_list":["post-16905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-southern-africa","tag-african-growth-and-opportunity-act-agoa","tag-donald-trump","tag-lesotho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}