In early September, violent riots targeting several stores owned by foreigners broke out across South Africa, in Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounding areas. At least 10 people, including two foreigners, were reportedly killed in days of violence that erupted after armed mobs razed and vandalized several businesses and stores owned by immigrants. South African police in a Sept. 3 statement said they had arrested 189 people.
This is not the first time that foreigners have been targeted in South Africa. Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Somalis and Kenyans, among others, have all been victims of anti-foreigner violence. The 2008 attacks on foreigners and their investments in South Africa obviously marked the dawn of xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in South Africa. Multiple reports say about 60 people were killed and thousands displaced. Subsequent anti-immigrant attacks took place in 2015 and 2017 where foreigners were killed and their shops and businesses destroyed and looted.
Attackers claim the foreigners are taking over their businesses and jobs and are bringing crime to South Africa.
In Nigeria, the Catholic community and authorities are speaking up against the attacks on not just Nigerians, but any foreigners living in South Africa.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in a statement at the end of their second plenary meeting condemned the recent xenophobic attacks by South Africans on foreigners.
“We pray for the peaceful repose of those who lost their lives and sympathise with those who have suffered,” the statement said, adding that the bishops “draw the attention of all nations to Deuteronomy 10:18: ‘He [God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.’ ”
As the attacks were going on, Nigerians started reprisal attacks on South African investments, particularly supermarkets and telecommunication firms. The South African embassy in Nigeria temporarily shut down its activities over threats and fears of reprisal attacks. The Nigerian bishops’ conference also condemned the reprisal attacks, saying two wrongs can never make a right.
“At the same time, we note that South Africa and Nigeria have come a long way in fraternal and diplomatic relations. We advise Nigerians living at home and abroad to be good and law abiding,” the Nigerian bishops’ statement said.
“It is a senseless and barbaric act that you rise up to attack people living in your country without any provocation,” said Ayo-Maria Atoyebi, a bishop emeritus in southwest Nigeria. “Nigeria contributed a lot during their [South Africans’] fight for independence and against apartheid. Many of our people worked to help develop their country. Now that things are better for them, they have turned against us to say that we are denying them job opportunities in their country. This is wrong.”
