Cape Town – Award-winning South African comedian, Trevor Noah, has called out the media coverage of the war crisis in Ukraine in comparison to other regions such as Africa and the Middle East.
In the latest episode of his The Daily Show, Noah criticised journalists who reported on how Ukraine is not a “developing nation or third world country”.
To make his point clear, Trevor presented a compilation of TV reporters talking about Russia’s offensive strike on Ukraine.
In the clips, “stunned” reporters said that Ukraine was a “prosperous middle-class region” and the scenes of Ukrainians fleeing war were “unimaginable compared to those living in Africa or the Middle East”.
Noah was quick to point out that the reports were laced with racism undertones.
ALSO READ: AU ‘disturbed’ by alleged mistreatment of Africans in Ukraine
“I don’t know about you but I have been glued to the TV all weekend watching all the news. And beyond the war itself … there’s a really interesting thing that I learned. And that is: A lot of people on TV didn’t expect a war like this to happen in, let’s say, certain neighborhoods…
“Beyond the racism, like let’s not forget the racism, oh how I wish we could forget about the racism. You do realise that until very recently, fighting crazy wars was Europe’s thing. That was Europe’s entire thing. That’s all of European history, they even had something called, the Hundred Years’ War. You understand how long that is? That’s like a decade… they even got a Noble Prize because they stopped fighting, imagine that,” said Noah.
Watch the video below
African Union leaders voiced concern this week at reports of mistreatment of Africans caught up in the Ukraine conflict and said such conduct would be “shockingly racist”.
According to AFP, governments on the continent scrambled to help their citizens who were among the hundreds of thousands of people trying to flee into Poland and other countries neighbouring Ukraine.
ALSO READ | Nigeria to airlift hundreds stranded by Ukraine crisis
“Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach international law.
“In this regard, the chairpersons urge all countries to respect international law and show the same empathy and support to all people fleeing war notwithstanding their racial identity,” the African Union said in a statement.
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Picture: Twitter/ @Trevornoah
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