‘Afrophobia’ to blame for violence against foreigners – South Africa
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/09/afrophobia-to-blame-for-violence.html
South Africa’s Foreign Minister acknowledged on Thursday that
prejudice against people from other African countries was one of the
causes behind deadly attacks on foreign-owned businesses, a day after
Pretoria was forced to shut its embassy in Nigeria over threats of
retaliatory violence.
At least five Africans have been killed in attacks on foreigners in South Africa this week.
On Wednesday South African companies MTN, and Shoprite closed stores in Nigeria after retaliatory attacks in one of the store.
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said the government
decided to temporarily close the embassy in Nigeria for security reasons
after a protest march was planned there and threats of violence were
received.
“There is an Afrophobia we are sensing that exists, there is resentment and we need to address that,” Pandor said.
“There is a targeting of Africans from other parts of Africa, we
can’t deny that. But, there is also criminality … because a lot of this
is accompanied by theft,” she said, describing the attacks as a complex
phenomenon whose root causes were not easy to define.
The violence in South Africa has overshadowed the conference of the
World Economic Forum in Cape Town. Nigeria announced on Wednesday it
would boycott the meeting.
The withdrawal from the summit of Nigerian Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, who was scheduled to address a panel on universal energy
access on Thursday, has cast a cloud over initiatives to boost
intra-African trade.