Nigeria and South Africa are stepping up efforts to forestall xenophobic attacks in the future with the establishment of jointly run “early warning” system to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerian migrants.
This was disclosed at a joint press conference after a meeting between South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and her Nigerian counterpart Geoffrey Onyeama in Pretoria yesterday.
“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.
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”.
