Fresh Xenophobic attacks targeted at Nigerians living in South Africa have been reported as at Monday, September 2. This was first confirmed by Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who tweeted,
“Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection. Enough is enough. We will take definitive measures”
Footages depicting widespread attacks on Nigerians emerged on Monday afternoon. These attacks took the form of beating, looting and burning down of business places. Disturbing images of people, suspected to be Nigerians, as they were burnt alive, filled the internet. Some of those pictures and videos have however been proven to be from unrelated incidents. Unlike is widely believed there has been no case of death.
There were similar reports in October 2018, when 9 Nigerian-owned shops were burnt down. The Publicity Secretary of Nigerian Union in South Africa, Mr Habib Miller, in a telephone interview informed the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that,
“Nine Nigerian businesses have been looted and burnt. The incident began on Sunday and continued till Monday, Oct. 22, 2018.”
Prior to this, there had been reported attacks in 1998, 2000, 2008 and 2013.
In 2013, the Governments of Nigeria and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding to reinforce diplomatic ties with the hope of preventing future attacks. Then President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma had invited Nigerians to come and trade in South Africa saying,
“I would also like to urge Nigerians to take advantage of the trade and investment opportunities that are present in South Africa and what this country has to offer.”
He further said that over 100 South African companies are already doing business in Nigeria, listing communications, engineering, construction, media, banking, retail, hospitality, oil and gas exploration and services, as the sectors these companies are into.
On his part, the Nigerian President at the time, Goodluck Jonathan, had said
“South Africa and Nigeria, with our robust economies and large markets, are well placed to accelerate the emergence of this renaissance [in] Africa.” Referring to a plan by both Nations to trade together and boost business in Africa by doing so.
In 2017, Nigeria and South Africa, again reached another agreement, this time more specific. It was to set up a mechanism called the “Early Warning Unit” to prevent attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa. The Nigerians took this so seriously, both the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister of Interior briefed Journalists in Abuja about the plan when they returned.
“We proposed to the South African government that from our discussions with the Nigerian community in South Africa, we feel they have no access to the government agencies that are responsible for their security, the government agencies that have it within their power to prevent such actions and the government agencies that have it as their mandate to address there complaints.” they said.
Thirty-four sectoral agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU) was signed to this and other effects.
