NIGERIA
The Exodus
Nigeria is planning to repatriate about 600 of its citizens this week from South Africa after a wave of xenophobic violence targeting foreigners has created tensions between Africa’s two heavyweights.
“The first flight will carry 320 Nigerians. We will have another one immediately after that,” Nigeria’s Consul General Godwin Adamu told Agence France-Presse.
The exodus follows rioting in Johannesburg that targeted foreigners and their businesses, and killed at least 10 people.
Violence against foreigners has grown in South Africa along with anti-immigrant sentiment as the country continues to grapple with a 28 percent unemployment rate.
In response to the violence, Buhari’s government temporarily closed South Africa’s diplomatic mission in Lagos and Abuja, while Nigeria’s ruling party has urged the government to nationalize South African firms operating there.
Meanwhile, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the violence, adding that “the majority of foreign nationals in our country… are law-abiding and have the right to conduct their lives and businesses in peace,” he said, according to the BBC.
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