South Africa set to partner Nigeria for anti-xenophobia monitor launch

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South Africa and Nigeria are set to work together to have an “early warning” system to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerian migrants.

This is as the South African foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane met her Nigerian counterpart Geoffrey Onyeama in Pretoria on Monday to discuss the attacks on immigrants especially Nigerians.

“The early warning centre would allow us keep each other abreast of issues and help prevent violence,” Nkoana-Mashabane said.

There were several incidents last month of South African locals attacking migrants from Africa and elsewhere and their businesses in both the administrative capital Pretoria and the commercial capital Johannesburg.

Many locals have alleged that the targets were brothels and drug dens being run by migrants from elsewhere in Africa, including Nigeria. More than 20 shops were targeted in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, while residents in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, attacked at least 12 houses.

The new violence-busting forum will meet every three months and will be made up of representatives from both countries and include immigration officials, business associations and civil society groups.

Nkoana-Mashabane said it was untrue that “the attacks on foreign nationals were targeted at the Nigerians”, adding that citizens of other countries were also affected. Onyeama said he had received assurances that Nigerians in South Africa would be able to live in peace and called for an end to “mass attacks”.

According to the Nigerian Union in South Africa, there are about 800,000 Nigerians in the country, many of them living in Johannesburg. Onyeama added that groups in Nigeria calling for the retaliatory expulsion of South African residents and businesses “do not speak on behalf of government”.

Attacks against foreigners and foreign-run businesses have erupted regularly in recent years in South Africa, fuelled by the country’s high unemployment and poverty levels.

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