Death of George Floyd: many indignant voices rise in Africa

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On the African continent, as everywhere in the world, reactions are multiplying after the death in the United States of a black man suffocated during police violence in Minneapolis, last week. 

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First to react, the African Union, as of last Friday, protested against the conditions of the death of George Floyd . In a statement, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, strongly condemned the "  murder  " and urged the American authorities to intensify their efforts to eliminate all forms of racial or ethnic discrimination.

In South Africa, the ruling party, the ANC, calls the American authorities has found a solution to what it describes as "a  racial impasse  " in the country.

In Zimbabwe, the American ambassador to Harare was summoned to explain himself. In West Africa, the Guinean Organization for Human Rights is concerned about this crime with racist overtones, but also about the reaction of the American president calling for more firmness in the face of the demonstrations.

Protests also in the world of sport. At a football match on Sunday, Moroccan international Achraf Hakimi wore a jersey that read "  Justice for George Floyd  ". Nigerian player Anthony Ujah, Senegalese Sadio Mané and Egyptian Mohamed Salah also protested kneeling before their match. A gesture that has become the symbol in the United States of the protest against the police violence against African-Americans.

■ Former President of Benin Nicéphore Soglo denounces the situation of blacks in the United States

On behalf of the Forum of former Heads of State and Government of Africa, forum created in 2006 in Maputo under the high patronage of Nelson Mandela, the former president of Benin, Nicéphore Soglo read this Monday to the press.

The Forum of Former Heads of State and Government of Africa is deeply shocked, outraged and devastated by the repeated crimes against the black community in the United States of America, the latest of which is that of George Floyd . What level of cruelty must be reached before the whole world finally wakes up and expresses its indignation? Who would dare to treat this way a European, a Chinese today? etc ... Too much is too much. But it will not last for long. The Forum calls on all the governments of the African continent to raise a strong protest against the ignoble killing of George Floyd that the perpetrators of this crime be punished with the utmost rigor. The Forum calls on the President of the United States of America to urgently take appropriate steps to end this violence and the killings.

Nicéphore Soglo, former president of Benin and vice-president of the club of former heads of state of Africa

Jean-Luc Aplogan

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• Africa
• United States
• Racism

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