Mozambique Citizens Killed in ‘Xenophobic Attacks’ in South Africa as Ghana Evacuates Citizens
- Mozambique reports five nationals killed in xenophobic attacks amid South Africa's rising anti-migrant protests
- Ghana and Nigeria announce evacuations for their citizens as violence intensifies in South Africa
- Mossel Bay mayor expresses deep concern over the violent xenophobic incidents and rising tensions
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Mozambique said five of its nationals were killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa over the weekend.
Like Ghana, the country is trying to repatriate some of its citizens.
Source: Getty Images
South African police disputed the Mozambicans, saying only two had died in violence in the southern coastal town of Mossel Bay.
The Guardian reported that these killings were the first to be officially linked to a wave of anti-migrant protests sweeping the country.
Protests against undocumented foreign nationals have been mounting in South Africa in recent weeks, leading Ghana to evacuate about 300 of its citizens last week, with Nigeria also announcing repatriation plans.
The Mozambique government’s media office said in a statement late on Monday that seven Mozambican citizens had died after violence broke out on Friday in Mossel Bay, about 380km (235 miles) east of Cape Town.
Five deaths were “a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks and the other two as a result of a road accident, when they were travelling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique”, it said. But the South African police told AFP that only two Mozambique nationals, aged 27 and 43, were killed in an informal settlement attached to Mossel Bay, both from multiple injuries from assault.
In the early hours of Sunday, police in the same area found the body of an 18-year-old South African who had been stabbed to death in unclear circumstances, they said.
Mossel Bay’s mayor, Dirk Kotzé, at the weekend voiced “deep concern and dismay at the current xenophobic attacks where people have been murdered, houses burned and families displaced”.
As the continent’s most industrialised economy, South Africa has long been a destination for legal and undocumented African workers who are accused by some fringe groups of crime and taking jobs from locals.
The national broadcaster, SABC, said tensions in Mossel Bay erupted over allegations that undocumented migrants were being employed by construction companies. About 55 shacks were torched, local media reported.
Source: YEN.com.gh
