George Floyd protests and sanctions row leave US failing to win friends and influence Africa
- Governments and protesters continue to condemn Floyd’s death, at a time when the US is struggling to match China’s inroads in the continent
- African nations joined by China in opposing US over sanctions on Zimbabwe and Sudan, saying they compounded the impact of the coronavirus
African countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana, and others through the African Union bloc, have voiced their anger at the treatment of Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis last month.
The reaction internationally to Floyd’s death has become yet another setting for the increasingly hostile rivalry between the US and China, with officials from China joining the condemnation, which has continued in Africa in the past week through protests at US embassies in Kenya and South Africa.
China has also sided with African countries in advocating lifting US sanctions imposed on Sudan, over accusations of sponsoring terrorism, and Zimbabwe, for rights abuses and irregular elections.
On Monday, South Africa’s opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, led its members in staging protests outside the US embassy in Pretoria, and consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town. They carried placards stating “Black Lives Matter” and “Black people are not slaves”.