Raid in Delhi Neighborhood Rattles African Residents NEW DELHI - Over the past week, an uncomfortable spotlight has fallen on Khirki Extension, a sprawling residential colony in south Delhi that is home to many of Delhi's African residents. Several Africans have left or are debating leaving the neighborhood since a group of Indians conducted a late-night raid on a house last week, which some residents have alleged was led by Somnath Bharti, Delhi's law minister. Since then, TV camera crews and journalists have swarmed the colony, which is situated behind a trash dump and across the street from a cluster of glittering malls in the upmarket Saket area. Several Ugandan and Nigerian women have accused Mr. Bharti of leading the raid against them on Jan. 15, in which they were forced to urinate publicly for a drug test. In a televised video, Mr. Bharti was seen demanding that the police arrest the women, and local media reported that he condemned members of a rival party for being complicit in sex and drug rackets in the area. The circumstances of the raid led several activists to call Mr. Bharti and his Aam Aadmi Party racist and demand Mr. Bharti's removal. The Delhi Commission for Women, which is investigating the case, summoned Mr. Bharti to appear before it by Friday. The raid has also brought attention to deep insecurity and isolation many Africans feel in the country, which was underscored in November with a diplomatic standoff between the Nigerian ambassador and the chief minister of Goa after a Nigerian was killed in the state. "There is no security for black people in India," said Emmanuel Omodu, a 31-year-old Nigerian who lives in Saket but was visiting friends in Khirki extension earlier this week. Mr. Omodu said he moved to India in 2009 to buy car parts and send them back to his shop in Lagos. The people who live in Khirki Extension include citizens from Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They came to Delhi to study or take service-sector jobs like hairstylists and cooks. Some have opted to participate in illegal activities, which even African residents say flourishes in the neighborhood. Outside of the residential colonies favored by Africans, the African experience in Delhi is not widely known, partially because there is a perception, real or imagined, that as non-Indian citizens in a vast, fragmented city, Africans have no legal protection if they talk freely. Brenda Semakula, 26, left the neighborhood two days ago, after she took part in a protest against the raid at Jantar Mantar, and is planning to move back only after the scrutiny dies down. She returned Wednesday to visit friends. As she gingerly stepped around a felled tree and flooded street, she said she left because she felt too exposed. Since she participated in the protest on Sunday, her Indian landlady showed neighbors a newspaper article on the raid in which Ms. Semakula was quoted, and her friends told her there were groups of men looking for her when she returned from her job as a hairdresser one day. She and others complained that the raid last week was not the first time they have encountered hostility from the local Indian community and law enforcement. In the three months that Ms. Semakula has lived in Delhi, groups of men have showed up at her landlady's apartment twice asking if there were any Africans there. Jason Olamilekan, a 37-year-old Nigerian working in textiles in India for the last three years, said the police have come by his home twice in the past few months, the latest one coming right after the raid last week. Many in Khirki who moved to India for the job opportunities were shocked by the hostility they have encountered. For Lily Kwifor, 35, the shock of moving to a new country in August was unmitigated by the thrill of new relationships across a cultural divide. For her, Indians as a group are hostile, calling her a prostitute when she walks down the street. She said the children, with their penchant for throwing rocks, were the worst. What can we do? We are strangers here," she said. She said she missed the freedom of Douala, her hometown in Cameroon, where she and her three younger sisters felt safe to walk around at any hour. Now, she doesn't leave home after 8 p.m. and is contemplating leaving India for good after the Cameroonian restaurant where she was a cook was closed by its owners in anticipation of more raids. Others said that beyond the raids, the general street harassment is too much to take. "If it is late and you're alone, people can be so aggressive when they see only one of you," said Auguy Tambwa, a 34-year-old M.B.A. student at Mahatma Gandhi University who moved from the Democratic Republic of the Congo three years ago. He said that he wouldn't advise his younger siblings or friends to move to India. "If you're alone, it's so dangerous," he said. The fear runs both ways, however. Some Indians who live in the area complained that the police never do anything about the illegal activities in the neighborhood and was in favor of the raid that was conducted last week. "The entire neighborhood is afraid," said Nasir Ahmed, a 45-year-old shop owner in Khirki Extension. Women are afraid; our children are afraid. African nationals in the area, he said, drink all night and sell drugs. Mr. Tambwa acknowledged that prostitution was common in Khirki Extension, saying that he himself has been approached by Ugandan sex workers. "But if they want to crack down on it, do it legally," he said. One master's degree student from Nigeria, who declined to be identified because of fear of the legal repercussions, said that part of the problem is that the African ambassadors were not doing their jobs to ensure the safety of Africans in India, particularly with regard to Mr. Bharti's raid. "It's left for the Africans leaders now to make sure the human rights of our people in the diaspora are respected," he said. What do Indian leaders have to gain by protecting us? They have nothing to gain. Yet the Nigerian high commissioner, Ndubuisi Amaku, said in an interview with the Indo-Asian News Service last week that it was the responsibility of the Indian officials to condemn the raid. Deep insecurity was evident in the many residents of Khirki Extension who declined to comment on their experiences with the local Indian community. One student refused to speak to a reporter even anonymously. When asked why, he gestured at a growing number of onlookers. "Look around you," he said, before walking away. Nida Najar is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.