The federal government has called on South Africa to take immediate steps to halt attacks on Nigerians and other African migrants, disclosing that 98 Nigerians have lost their lives in the country over the past four years.
The demand was made on Monday in Abuja when South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, paid a visit to Nigeria as a special envoy of President Cyril Ramaphosa, delivering a message to President Bola Tinubu and holding talks aimed at easing tensions over the recurring attacks on foreign nationals.
Leading the Nigerian delegation, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, said President Tinubu had directed that the meeting squarely address what he described as persistent “Afrophobic attacks” against Nigerians and other African migrants in South Africa.
Enikanolaiye said the attacks had become a matter of grave concern to the Nigerian government, noting that official records confirmed 98 Nigerians had been killed in mob and hate-related attacks in South Africa over the last four years.
“We have seen a pattern that has become a concern to the Nigerian government,” the minister said, warning that continued violence risked damaging the long-standing strategic relationship between Africa’s two largest economies.
He recalled that the federal government had previously evacuated more than 1,500 Nigerians from South Africa in the wake of earlier waves of violence, describing the experience as deeply harrowing.
“I shed tears when I received the first batch of evacuees. I saw children, women and the elderly returning home with almost nothing after their properties had been looted and destroyed. That is not the Africa we want,” he said.
The minister also questioned why South African security agencies had failed to prevent several of the attacks, particularly given that many of the victims were lawful residents.