“Informed of the refusal of issuing visas to several members of the Senegal women’s national basketball team, I have instructed the Ministry of Sports to simply cancel the 10-day preparatory training initially planned in the United States of America,” Sonko said in his statement.

The Senegalese women’s basketball team has scrapped plans to train in the U.S. for the upcoming AfroBasket tournament in the Ivory Coast next month after several players and team officials had their visas denied.

The Senegal women’s basketball team has had to cancel a training camp it had scheduled in the United States after some members of its squad had their visas denied, the country’s prime minister said on Thursday.