(The following article is being republished from The Quint’s archives in light of the latest attack on a Nigerian national in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. A video showing the man being mercilessly thrashed for an alleged theft emerged on Monday. The article was originally published on 26 May 2016.)
Murder is a terrible crime. A murder that springs chiefly from xenophobia is perhaps more so. On 20 May, a 29-year-old Congolese man was beaten to death in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area by three men. The provocation was trivial: Masunda Ketada Olivier, who taught at a language school in the capital, had hailed an auto-rickshaw. The other three men staked their claim to it. An altercation followed, culminating in the men chasing Olivier and bashing his head with a stone.
When Olivier was brought to the hospital, he had already succumbed to his injuries.
Now, African envoys have written a letter to the government urging it to put off the Africa Day event today, saying that India must first solve the problem of “racism and Afro-phobia”. It went on to add that past incidents of violence against Africans had gone unresolved.
In a series of tweets, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj sought to reassure African countries that India was committed to the safety and security of their nationals. She also asked Minister of State for External Affairs, VK Singh to meet the African envoys to allay their fears.