On Wednesday, hundreds of environmental and human rights activists gathered outside the BRICS summit demanding China halt financing for fossil fuel projects in Africa. Protesters cited the China-backed East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, known as EACOP. Campaigner and protest leader Zaki Mamdoo said a true friend to Africa would not fund projects that displace communities, unravel livelihoods and destroy ecosystems.

Zaki Mamdoo: “What friend would come into your house and remove you from your house and take your land, kill your crops and subject your children to illness and harm? That is a bad friend. That’s a bad friend. These ones, of China, of Russia, of India, they aspire to be the same colonial extractors.”