Why all this hatred just because of the colour of his skin?
For 20-year-old Senegalese, Kande Boubacar, Saturday 8, 2020 would be a day he is not going to forget in hurry. It started like a normal day, woke up went out in search of his daily bread in the Sicilian heartland of Palermo. At about midnight Kande was returning home from work using his frequented route of Via Cavour, in the centre of town, when he was accosted by a group of some dozen boys in their teens.

Embolden by their numerical strength, the teenagers descended on the African using all sorts of racist diatribes. Their clamorous voices rang through the night as they call Kande “shit nigger get out of here.” Not satisfied with their racist slurs on the 20-year-old, they punched and slapped him until two men who happened on the scene chased off the teenagers.

They assisted Kande to regain his composure as they called an ambulance. He was treated by the medics and then convey to Palermo’s Civico Hospital for further examination. “Why all this hatred just because of the colour of his skin?” lamented Kande’s mother who reported the incident to the police.

The police who have been on the case since it happened have been able to identity four of the dozen teens who took part in the attack on the Senegalese. The abuse of Africans have been on the rise since Matteo Salvini shot to the political limelight few years ago. He is renowned for his attacks on immigrant blaming all the wows of Italy on them, a situation that has encouraged his sympathisers to also attack the migrant communities in Italy.