By Associated Press and Lauren Edmonds—April 11, 2020
African officials confronted China publicly and in private over racist mistreatment of Africans in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, and the U.S. says African-Americans have been targeted too.
As China prepares for a second wave of COVID-19 cases to hit their cities, Africans living in the commercial hub ‘Little Africa’ – found in the Yuexiu district – said they’ve been discriminated against and faced racism.
And a U.S. Embassy security alert on Saturday said that ‘police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin,’ and local officials have launched mandatory testing and self-quarantine for ‘anyone with “African contacts”.’
Some Africans have even described being suddenly evicted from their homes.
‘I’ve been sleeping under the bridge for four days with no food to eat… I cannot buy food anywhere, no shops or restaurants will serve me,’ Tony Mathias, an exchange student from Uganda, told France 24.
Mathias was evicted from his apartment on Monday. He said: ‘We’re like beggars on the street.
Africans in Guangzhou also claimed they haves shunned by others in public and targeted for additional COVID-19 tests without ever seeing the results.
‘There is an escalating scrutiny of foreign nationals, but they are targeting the Africans and the African American community. Since last Thursday we saw 114 new cases reported in Guangzhou of coronavirus infections and 16 of those were Africans,’ said journalist Sarah Clarke for Al Jazeera.
Read more at the Daily Mail.
