At least two videos have emerged online of Chinese mobs brutally assaulting two African men in separate incidents.
There has been a spat of attacks against Africans in China, who have become easy targets to discrimination and racial profiling by the Chinese blaming the foreigners for spreading the coronavirus inside China.
One viral video shows an African man being assaulted with iron rods inside a market by a mob while blaming him for spreading the coronavirus intentionally. Angry Chinese men, all of them armed with baseball bats can be seen attacking the helpless man while hurling racist abuses at him.
Another video also shot in a market shows a group of Chinese men kicking and punching an African national who is begging for mercy.
Since the outbreak in Wuhan, China had put the country under quarantine. Though in recent weeks, the restrictions have been eased, a recent rise in COVID-19 infections in China was being linked to foreigners.
The Chinese government that is focused on stopping a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak has imposed strict scrutiny of foreigners, but the Africans have become an easy target of the existing xenophobia in China.
The situation reportedly escalated in early April after a series of online posts blamed two Nigerians, who allegedly tested positive for coronavirus but escaped from the hospital. The reports blamed the two African men for spreading the coronavirus and starting the second wave of the pandemic.
Since then there has been an increase in racial attacks against Africans. According to an Al Jazeera report, African students have been thrown out of their homes overnight by landlords, while are being subjected to coronavirus test multiple times and their presence in public is shunned.
Several African community leaders in Guangzhou, which has become a hotbed of racial attack against Africans told BBC that most of the African population in the region either forcefully have been put under quarantine by the government or are left on the streets without any shelter.
Recently, McDonald's in China was forced to issue an apology after a branch in Guangzhou barred black people from entering the fast-food outlet.
