India moves to calm African fears after attack on Congolese student

NEW DELHI: India tried to calm fears expressed by African countries about the safety of their nationals after the murder of a Congolese man.
A group of African envoys said Tuesday the murder of the Congolese student on the weekend was the latest in a series of racially-motivated attacks on members of their community and that they may ban new students from coming to India.
Student Masonda Ketada Olivier, 29, was beaten to death on Saturday by a group of men in a New Delhi residential area after an argument over hiring an autorickshaw.
India condemned the student's killing, and officials told the African diplomats in a meeting that not all criminal acts should be seen as racially motivated, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said Wednesday.
Two suspects had been arrested and those found guilty would be punished, Swarup said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had asked her junior minister VK Singh to assure the African heads of mission that the safety and security of their nationals would be ensured, he said.
Singh was due to meet the envoys later Wednesday.
"Several attacks and harassment of Africans in India have gone unresolved without diligent prosecution and conviction of perpetrators," Eritrean Ambassador Alem Tsehage Woldemariam, dean of the group of mission heads, said in Tuesday's statement.
The African missions said they had called for Africa Day celebrations organised by the Indian government for Thursday to be postponed.
"Not only Delhi is not safe but the whole India is not safe especially for black people like us," a Nigerian information technology student in Jaipur, Usman Abubakar Bashir, said in a post on the Association of African Students in India's Facebook page. — dpa