Africans nationals facing widespread harassment in China in the wake of Covid-19: Reports

African ambassadors in China have written to the country's foreign minister over what they call discrimination against Africans as the country seeks to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last December, Al Jazeera reported.

Several African countries have separately also demanded that China address their concerns that Africans, in particular in the southern city of Guangzhou, are being mistreated and harassed, reported the news channel.

In recent days Africans in Guangzhou have reported being evicted from their apartments by their landlords, being tested for coronavirus several times without being given results, and being shunned and discriminated against in public. Such complaints have been made in local media and on social media, reported Al Jazeera.

China, however, has denied discrimination.

Al Jazeera's Sarah Clarke said there seemed to be a concern in China that the African community in Guangzhou could be behind a second wave of infections.

"There is an escalating scrutiny of foreign nationals, but they are targeting the Africans and the African American community. Since last Thursday we saw 114 new cases reported in Guangzhou of coronavirus infections and 16 of those were Africans," Sarah Clarke said.

"We've seen a number of reports from social media from members of the African community in Guangzhou making complaints of mistreatment, arrests, eviction and being denied access to restaurants and hotels, and some students are even claiming to be living on the streets and being denied food," she said.

In the letter, African ambassadors informed China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, that a number of reported incidents, including that Africans were being ejected from hotels in the middle of the night, the seizure of their passports, and threats of visa revocation, arrest or deportation have been taking place.

"The Group of African Ambassadors in Beijing immediately demands the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans," it said as reported by AJazeera.

The Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe has rejected such reports.

"China has zero tolerance for racial discrimination," it tweeted.

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital Abuja, said there is both "anger and disbelief" among the African officials.

Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the country expressed its concern over the developments in China.

"The Ministry’s attention has been drawn to information concerning the situation of some Kenyan nationals in China specifically with regard to a recent decision by the Government of China to undertake stringent testing of foreigners and Chinese nationals alike, to forestall imported and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in Guangzhou and other areas of China," it said in a statement.

"The Ministry through its Embassy in Beijing is seized of this matter and has officially expressed concern about these developments and is working with the Chinese authorities to tackle the matter expeditiously," read the statement.

"The Ministry has received assurances from the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi that the Government of China takes a serious view of the situation and that the local authorities in Guangzhou have been tasked to take immediate action to safeguard the legitimate rights of the Africans concerned," it said.

Ghana's foreign affairs minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said in a statement that the Chinese envoy was summoned and action was demanded from the country over the issue. 

The COVID-19 is believed to have originated from China and now it has spread across the globe.