**Expanded Travel Ban Encompasses Nations Facing Intense Conflicts and Instability**

President Donald Trump's latest travel ban, revealed this week, targets 12 nations plagued by severe civil unrest and armed conflicts. This expanded list, which restricts travel from multiple regions, unearths a pattern linking many of these countries to recent violent histories.

Three countries, Yemen, Myanmar, and Sudan, are currently ensnared in fierce civil wars. Myanmar, in particular, stands out for the intensity of its internal conflict. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project, it ranks amongst the most severe global conflicts, only trailing Gaza and the West Bank. The country's military has been embroiled in a bloody internal struggle since seizing power in 2021, controlling about 21 percent of the territory per the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sudan's conflict is equally distressing, occupying the eighth position on ACLED's list of extreme conflicts. The nation is torn apart by a brutal civil war between its army and a rival paramilitary force, resulting in over 150,000 deaths and a massive humanitarian crisis.

In Yemen, although the conflict is considered severe, it's not as extreme as in Myanmar and Sudan. The country has faced significant threats from Houthi militants, who were re-designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration in March.

The travel ban also affects numerous other countries grappling with various degrees of turmoil. Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, and Somalia are among those facing travel restrictions. Each of these nations is either in the grip of armed conflict or dealing with significant civil disturbances.

In Haiti, gang violence has overrun parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, displacing ten percent of the population. This surge in violence prompted the Dominican Republic to initiate mass deportations of Haitians in 2024. Haiti's Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed concern over the impact of the travel ban, emphasizing efforts to combat insecurity and strengthen border security.

Somalia, still recovering from decades of civil war, contends with the threat of al-Shabab insurgents, affiliates of al-Qaeda. Over the past three months, the group has reclaimed crucial territories from Somali forces. Meanwhile, Libya faces potential political instability related to its oil fields, just five years removed from a debilitating civil war.

The White House has largely justified the bans citing visa overstays, particularly affecting Muslim-majority countries like Iran, Somalia, and Yemen. Despite some high overstay rates, the overall number of issued visas remains low, with some countries showcasing higher rates yet avoiding the ban. Additionally, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran were implicated due to historically adversarial U.S. relations. Human rights organizations vehemently criticized the renewed travel bans, pointing to the chaos and confusion that followed the first travel restrictions under Trump's administration.