Johanneburg — Officials in Africa have expressed concern over developments in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd, the black American man killed in police custody in the city of Minneapolis last week.
The head of the African Union described Floyd’s death as an act of “murder,” while South Africa’s ruling party is calling for calm in the U.S. Statements from the African continent could portend a shift in global relations — and hopefully, analysts say, make a bigger point: whether you live in Minneapolis or Monrovia, George Floyd’s death affects us all.
In Addis Ababa, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat took the U.S. government to task over the death of Floyd.
Meanwhile, U.S. embassies in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo issued rare statements of concern over Floyd’s May 25 death and called for accountability after the arrest of a police officer on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
This week, as fires burned across the U.S., South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party also weighed in in the mounting crisis, saying the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor show that “American society places a perilously low value on black lives.”
