Accra, Aug. 8, GNA - The Council for Afrika International, a UK-based think-thank, has condemned what it described as the brutal removal by force of vulnerable women and children by French police in Northern Paris.

The organisation also urged the African Union and African Diplomats to use their power and influence to protect the interests of Africans in the Diaspora.

A statement issued by Dr Koku Adomdza, Spokesperson of the council and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, expressed dissatisfaction about the July 21 excessive use of force to evacuate some 200 unarmed Africans including women and children from a housing project in La Courneuve, a suburb of Paris.

"In the same week, an unarmed African youth was shot by armed police while getting away from a trouble spot," it said.

In response, human rights organisations joined political rivals to denounce President's Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to target French of immigrant origin.

According to the statement the League of Human Rights slammed the action, saying: "The xenophobia of Nicolas Sarkozy threatens democracy.

"This cocktail of xenophobic developments is set to entrench deeper discrimination against the interests of French citizens of foreign but particularly of African ancestry in France," it said.

The society claimed that prior to this; President Sarkozy had ordered the deportation of European Roma gypsies.

"Nonetheless, the Council for Afrika International renews its unambiguous condemnation of any policies, actions and verbiage that seek to deepen and incite, whether overt or covert, discrimination against the welfare of vulnerable minorities in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

"While there was a justifiable chorus of unease, outcry and disagreement with President Sarkozy's deportation order directed at the Roma gypsies, the brutal visibly distressing armed police action against the vulnerable Africans including women and children, was noticeably met with little public objection, as though Africans are not human beings or that there are no agencies in existence with mandate to champion and represent African interests in the Diaspora.

'Unlike their European and Global North counterparts, there is hardly any occasion that African public officials stationed in the Diaspora have come out to condemn discriminatory acts against Africans in the Diaspora or to forcefully protect Africans who have been violated.

'We all know the fundamental push and pull factors that drive African emigration into Europe - the rape, plunder and impoverishment of the natural resource endowment of the African continent, resource-driven conflicts and wars and sometimes natural disasters that create extremely harsh conditions in Africa," the statement said.

It stressed: "African Diplomatic Mission Staffers have the privilege of making a difference by making strident efforts to connect and reach out to Africans in the Diaspora."

The council is an independent body that counters discrimination, injustice and all forms of cruelty directed at persons of African ancestry.