As Israeli troops begin a ground invasion of Lebanon to tackle Hezbollah, hundreds and possibly thousands of Africans including students and migrant workers have been trapped in the maelstrom caused by the scramble for safety,
”Will Africans in Lebanon make it back home safely” says a placard on Tiktok explaining the plight of black student migrants and workers who find themselves personally affected by the crisis.
Such is the desperation for thousands of Africans caught up in the unfolding crisis in Lebanon where they are either students at the American University of Beirut or domestic workers in Lebanese homes which are all but deserted.
Close to 100 African students are on scholarships with the AUB but all that is threatened by a war many Lebanese citizens believe Israel was bringing to their country without giving them a choice in the matter.
Whole neighbourhoods in Beirut where Hezbollah operate strongholds are mounds of pulverised debris and mangled wreckages amid heart-rending stories of human deaths, injuries, losses and miseries resulting from them.
The ground invasion of southern Lebanon is the latest dangerous sequel to a furious exchange of rocket fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah which began a day after the incursion by Hamas fighters from the Palestinian territory on October 7th, turning the Middle East into a cauldron of conflict.
Hezbollah, reputed as the most powerful non-state military organisation in the world is posed for a showdown with Israeli ground forces, day after its leader of 32 years Hassan Nasrallah was targeted and killed in an escalatory phase of hostilities.
Although the humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians since last October and Lebanese civilians in recent times overshadow other aspects of the conflict, Africans in the region have been facing their own largely unreported challenges. The African student population in Lebanon has grown in recent years, a fact which means that the new security crisis in the country has left many of them scrambling for protection and leaving altogether if they could.
Other Africans mainly from the east of the continent work in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries as menial workers.
With the deadly war of attrition between Israel and Hezbollah worsening as the conflict culminates in an invasion, a sizeable community of Kenyan students appears to have been forgotten as contigencies are made for civilians to evacuate possible targets of Israeli fire. Many say they have been left to fend for themselves.
Aside from Kenyans, sizeable communities of Ethiopians and Sudanese as domestic workers have been apparently abandoned by their Lebanon employers fleeing the mayhem.
Criticism of this has even branded their abandonment as indicative of the ”pervasive racism and mistreatment Africans face abroad”.
Unlike in Ukraine, where Africans have fallen as casualties of the war with Russia, so far none has been reported in Lebanon.
According to some reports some Lebanese employers have gone as far as telling their black workers to “sort themselves out,” showing a blithe disregard for the safety and security of those who worked for them.
This situation offers a stark reminder of how African students in invaded Ukraine found themselves at the lowest end of the preference scale when they were denied passage to safer countries.
In an opinion piece, the online publication Medium says ”The parallels between these two situations are glaring, exposing a deeper issue of anti-Blackness that emerges globally in moments of crisis. Whether in times of war, economic downturns, or public health emergencies, Africans often find themselves at the mercy of discriminatory systems that treat them as disposable”.
The silence of governments back in the countries where these migrants came from in Africa has not helped reassure them especially when the citizens from Western nations have been advised and supported to leave Lebanon for their safety.
Kenya may be an exception but there is little assurance even after Halima Mohamud, its envoy to Kuwait who oversees Lebanon, told The EastAfrican that her embassy has been contacting stranded compatriots over safety measures should the situation worsens.
“No Kenyan has died or been injured. We are in communication with them,” she was quoted as saying.
However, with the conflict escalating by the firing of rockets by Hezbollah and retaliatory bombardments by Israel was planes which have killed close to 600 people, there are growing calls from frightened Kenyans for help to leave Lebanon for good.
And there are the cases of African menial workers whose contracts do not allow them to leave before their expiry.
Lebanese civilians and Palestinian refuges have been leaving as southern Lebanon braces itself for a long drawn out military campaign by Israel against Hezbollah who say they will continue to fight against ”Zionist aggression” despite the assasisnation of its leader Nasrallah and some of its combat strategists.
Some say the situation has been made even more dangerous after Hezbollah is rendered on a desperately defensive mode, meaning civilians trapped in areas under its control may come under fire from Israeli ground forces and planes.
Already the Israeli Defense Forces claim Hezbollah is using civilians as human shields, threatening a Gaza-like scenario where innocent people including children become casualties of the ensuing carnage. There is every chance that Africans will be caught up in this mayhem if they dont leave soon enough to beat the raids from the IDF.
Like the conflict in Gaza which will clock a year this month, the debacle in Lebanon threatens to be a more complicated affair given the mazes of tunnels and other Hezbollah labyrinths which Israel’s ground troops are supposed to neutralise.
The same network of tunnels run by Hamas in Gaza has not been dismantled one year into the Israeli invasion of the territory to flush out the militant group.
So far African governments not made any definitive moves to evacuate their nationals stranded in Lebanon, leaving this responsibility for hundreds or maybe even thousands of them to ponder and shoulder.
WN/as/APA