South Africa xenophobia: 98 Nigerians dead and 1,500 forced to flee

The news coming out of South Africa is deeply troubling. Yesterday, Ghana's Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told the BBC that the South African government is using xenophobia as a distraction from their own country's problems. He said they have seen videos of South African police just standing by, watching as people are attacked and killed and properties destroyed. This is not a new problem. Since 2022, we have been tracking what Nigeria's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, rightly called a persistent pattern of Afrophobic violence.

The numbers are staggering. At least 98 Nigerian nationals have died from mob action and hate-related violence, including extra-judicial killings. Just recently, protesters forced nearly 1,500 people to leave the country after destroying their possessions and homes. I read Ambassador Enikanolaiye's words and they touched me deeply. He said, 'I was crying when we received the first group of evacuees. I saw children, women, and old people who returned with nothing after they lost all their belongings in those attacks. This is not the Africa we want.' Many of those killed and injured were legal residents, people who had built lives there.

South Africa's Special Envoy Ronald Lamola has denied that his country supports xenophobia, and they say they have arrested several people. But the question remains: why does this keep happening? Nigeria has demanded a transparent investigation into the death of a Nigerian man who authorities say collapsed during arrest in Cape Town. Ghana has already repatriated over one thousand of their nationals. This is a stain on the vision of a united Africa. What will it take for South African authorities to truly protect African brothers and sisters living in their country?