AMN /
Attacks on African youths in India in recent days have triggered a diplomatic row between India and African countries as African diplomats deciding not to join the May 25 Africa Day celebrations in New Delhi.
They have even threatened to recommend to their governments “not to send new students to India” because of “stereotypes and racial prejudice against Africans in India”.
The African Group of Heads of Mission declared that it would not join the May 25 Africa Day celebrations, in solidarity with Masunda Kitada Oliver, a Congolese student who was killed last week in Delhi.
“Given the pervading climate of fear and insecurity in Delhi, the African Heads of Mission are left with little option than to consider recommending to their governments not to send new students to India, unless and until their safety can be guaranteed,” a statement from Alem Tsehage Woldemariam, Ambassador of Eritrea and Dean of the group said.
Following a meeting of the group in the High Commission of Ghana on Tuesday, senior African diplomats met officials at the External Affairs Ministry, and called upon India “to take concrete steps to guarantee the safety and security of Africans”.
“Accordingly, the Indian government is strongly enjoined to take urgent steps to guarantee the safety of Africans in India, including appropriate programmes of public awareness that will address the problems of racism and Afro-phobia in India,” a press statement from the group stated.
“As regards this year’s celebration of Africa Day being organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for Thursday, the African Group has requested a postponement of the event. This is because the African Community in India are in a state of mourning,” said Ambassador Alem Tsehage Woldemariam in a press release.
Meanwhile External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today asked her colleague and Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retd.) V.K. Singh to meet the heads of missions of African countries in the national capital and assure them of the government’s commitment to safety and security of African nationals in India.
Swaraj’s remark comes in wake of the brutal murder of a Congolese youth in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj on May 20. “I have asked my colleague Gen V.K. Singh to meet the heads of missions of African countries in Delhi and assure them of Indian Government’s commitment to the safety and security of African nationals in India,” she tweeted.
She further stated that the Minister of State for External Affairs would also hold meetings with the African students in metro cities and assure them of safety and security.
“We will request State Governments to depute Commissioners of Police in all such meetings. We will also launch a sensitisation program to reiterate that such incidents against foreign nationals embarrass the country,” she added.