Nigeria Summons South Africa Envoy Over Protests, Nigerians In South Africa
Nigeria summoned South Africa’s acting high commissioner on Monday over growing anti-African migrant protests, putting Nigerians in South Africa at the center of a new diplomatic dispute. The meeting at Nigeria’s foreign ministry followed reports of violence against foreign shopkeepers and warnings that the protests could spread beyond South Africa’s borders.
The concern is not limited to Nigeria. South Africa has an estimated three million foreign residents, and more than two thirds come from neighboring Southern African countries, a mix that has made recent anti-migrant incidents especially sensitive for governments across the region.
Nigeria’s foreign ministry meeting
Nigeria called in South Africa’s acting high commissioner after citing the growing protests and the attacks reported against migrants. The move put formal pressure on South Africa to respond to a pattern of incidents that has already drawn attention from Ghana and the United Nations.
Just over a week earlier, Ghana’s foreign ministry held talks with South Africa’s acting high commissioner in Accra to protest several alleged xenophobic incidents involving Ghanaians. South Africa’s police ministry vowed only days earlier to crack down on anyone carrying out xenophobic attacks against Ghanaians and other foreign nationals.
Lamola and Cachalia on violence
South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Ronald Lamola said last month at a meeting of government officials that violence against migrants was a threat to South Africa’s constitutional order. He used the words: “Acts of lawlessness, intimidation and violence against migrant communities have no place in our constitutional democracy.”
Firoz Cachalia, South Africa’s police minister, said that “acts of xenophobia, violence, looting, or intimidation will not be tolerated under any circumstances.” Those statements place the police and foreign ministries on record against the street violence that has been reported in recent weeks.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also entered the picture on April 27, saying he was “deeply concerned by reports of xenophobic attacks and acts of harassment and intimidation against migrants and foreign nationals.” In the same statement, Guterres said: “Violence, vigilantism and all forms of incitement to hatred have no place in an inclusive, democratic society governed by the rule of law and respect for human rights,” underscoring how far the issue has moved beyond a bilateral complaint.
Mozambique border pressure
The pressure is not confined to diplomacy. City Press reported that South African trucks and citizens could be prevented from entering neighboring Mozambique on Monday, as protests were expected at Ressano Garcia in retaliation for xenophobic marches, statements and attacks against immigrants in South Africa. That prospect raises the cost of the protests for ordinary travelers and freight traffic moving across the border.
Recent anti-migrant protests in South Africa have included violence against foreign shopkeepers, and the incidents have mainly targeted Black Africans. With South Africa’s unemployment rate at more than 30%, migrant rights campaigners say foreigners are being scapegoated for economic strain, a claim that sits alongside the government’s public vows to stop the attacks.
For Nigerians in South Africa, the next move now sits with officials in Pretoria and Abuja. The diplomatic message from Nigeria has already been delivered; what comes next is how South African authorities apply the warnings they have already made against xenophobia, violence, looting and intimidation.
