Those behind attacks on Africans in India must be punished: UN

United Nations: The United Nations has expressed hope that those behind attacks on African nationals in India would be brought to justice.

“We do very much hope that people who are responsible for the attacks are brought to justice,” spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric told reporters here yesterday.

Dujarric was asked about the incidents of attacks on African nationals in India and whether there was any UN response or intervention to prevent these attacks.

Dujarric said that there was no UN involvement that he was aware of.

Four Nigerian students were attacked by a group of Greater Noida residents who took out a candle light march on March 26 after a 17-year-old Indian boy died due to suspected drug overdose.

Denouncing attacks on African nationals as “xenophobic and racial” in nature, heads of African missions in India have hit out at the government, saying it took no “known, sufficient and visible” deterrent action.

The Indian government has condemned the attacks as “unacceptable” and said investigations on the death of the teenager and the subsequent incident by local authorities are ongoing.