EXTINCTION REBELLION doused the steps of Trafalgar Square with fake blood today to highlight the devastating impact of Covid-19 on indigenous people. 

Protesters staged a die-in across the red splattered steps in central London and held up banners reading “Ecocide = genocide” and “indigenous emergency.”

Extinction Rebellion, which co-organised the protest with Brazilian indigenous movement APIB and the International Solidarity Network, said it wanted to draw attention to the impact of Covid on one of the most vulnerable communities in the world. 

The campaigners said that 600 indigenous people have died from the virus in Brazil.

Indigenous people communities have a long history of devastation from epidemics brought by colonialists, while deforestation and land grabs by corporations continue to displace communities. 

APIB campaigner Celia Xakriaba said: “It’s not just a number. Each indigenous body holds an ancestral enchantment. For each indigenous person who dies, part of our collective history dies too.”

As well as pouring red paint over the square, activists also turned the grand fountains a fluorescent green. 

Parallel actions also took place across the globe including Barcelona, Uganda and Munich. 

In Leeds people gathered for a theatrical performance.

Sarah Allison who was involved in the action said: “We had drumming and a minute’s silence for the lives lost, including from coronavirus. We called it a ‘sacred moment’.”

Adam Titterington, a filmmaker who recently spent 18 months in the Amazon rainforest investigating the destruction of indigenous communities there, and who is now active with Extinction Rebellion, told the Morning Star: “In the last 50 years five tribes have become extinct. 

“Another seven have less than 100 people left in their communities. Now coronavirus has come along. The indigenous people have five times the death rate from the virus than non-indigenous people.

“There are only one million indigenous people left in the Amazon rainforest.”