The All Africa Conference of Churches has condemned what it has labelled “racist xenophobic attacks” directed against African people and people of African descent in China.
In a statement released this week, Rev Dr Fidon Mwombeki, general secretary of the body which represents 198 churches and Christian councils in 42 nations, noted it had “heard and seen images of African residents in Guangzhou, evicted from the residences and hotels they were renting, and harassed by police on the streets, in the pretext of controlling the spread of COVID-19”.
It said it condemned, “in the strongest terms, the singling out and unjust targeting of people from Africa, a continent so far least affected by the disease”.
“We find it ironic and incomprehensible, the logic behind the vilification and discrimination as well as despicable inhumane stigmatization and treatment of Africans due to this pandemic, while this disease was first diagnosed in China,” the statement said.
The AACC called on all African governments to condemn the attacks against Africans in China and for the African Union to “make an unequivocal, strong protest against these evil acts committed against Africans in China”.
It also called on churches and civil society in Africa to “uphold the virtue of respecting all human beings as created in the image of God” and for African governments “to continue protecting the dignity and safety of people of Chinese descent resident in Africa, to avoid retaliatory attacks by the African citizens seeing the brutality and injustice targeting their relatives and fellow citizens in China”.
Mwombeki noted in the statement that “”[e]ven when COVID-19 was mainly in China, African governments protected Chinese residents in Africa from the anger and vilification targeting Chinese people on the streets of Africa”.
“China is obliged to do the same,” he wrote.
