Malawi says it will repatriate its nationals from South Africa, following an upsurge in xenophobic violence.

At least five foreigners, including a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in attacks in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban since last week.

Some foreign-owned shops in the main city Johannesburg have shut amid fears that the violence could spread.

Zimbabwe has also condemned the attacks, blamed on locals who accuse foreigners of taking their jobs.

Tens of thousands of foreigners, mostly from other African states and Asia, have moved to South Africa since white-minority rule ended in 1994.

At least 62 people died in xenophobic attacks that swept South Africa in 2008.

Malawi is the only country which has so far decided to repatriate its citizens.

Information Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa said the first group would return at the weekend.

About 420 Malawians are reportedly living in refugee camps in Durban after fleeing the violence, he said.

The BBC’s Raphael Tenthani reports from Blantyre that he received a call from a Malawian in Durban who said saw he some Malawians being killed – including a close friend who was burned alive.

Mr Nankhumwa called on the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to intervene to help protect foreigners.

“This is unfortunate coming at a time we are working on regional integration,” he said at a press conference.

“We urge the government of South Africa to protect foreigners,” he added.

Standing in the middle of a football field that has been turned into a refugee camp overnight in Durban’s Chatsworth township, one cannot help but feel ashamed of being South African.

There are white and green tents dotted around housing destitute African migrant families who fled the violence meted out to them by their South African hosts.

Two weeks ago locals began attacking and looting properties owned by fellow Africans, calling them “kwerekwere”, a derogatory word for African migrants.

I did not even have to ask Memory Mahlatini, a Zimbabwean who works as a nanny, what happened to her because her story was written all over her face.

Her eyes alone made me look down in shame as she explained how a group of South Africans came to her rented home last Monday evening just as they were preparing to sleep and demanded that they go back to where they came from.

In total, the violence has left about 5,000 foreigners homeless in Durban, the main city in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, local media reports.

On Wednesday, the violence spread to the province’s second city, Pietermaritzburg, where foreign-owned shops were looted.

Verulam, a town about 30km (18 miles) north of Durban, has been hit by similar violence.

The government has ordered police to step up patrols to prevent the violence from escalating.

The governing African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement that South Africans should “hang our heads in shame in the face of these misguided and misplaced assaults”.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has been accused of fuelling xenophobia after he was widely quoted as saying at a meeting last month that foreigners should “please go back to their countries”.

He denied being xenophobic and claimed he had been mistranslated.

South Africa’s official unemployment rate stands at 24%, but some analysts believe that it is much higher.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=114747

when is Nigeria evacuating Nigerians.

Humblega:
when is Nigeria evacuating Nigerians.

we nid to wait for buhari to come do d magic

Did Malawians check their tribes before evacuating their country people from SA

Imagine a region in Nigeria calling others immigrants,yet we're all stuck with green passports while traveling out.

What a country!

God knows i hate dat country with a lot of passion....

They tend to blame their woes on anoda innocent person...

Don't worry 9ja, dey too wud soon b chased out of 9ja, i trust buhari the ''Ghana Must Go'' guy

I will tell my father about this issue. I think Zuma will even be afraid of my father.... So Nigerians will be free...


,,,,,,,GMB son,,,,,

Rose2014:
Did Malawians check their tribes before evacuating their country people from SA
Imagine a region in Nigeria calling others immigrants,yet we're all stuck with green passports while traveling out.
What a country!

wot u ar saying is far frm wots happening in SA; I tink. No Nigerian can attack other with arms bcs of tribe. Dnt tell me bokoharam, bcs dere own is madness of anoda dimension

godson36:
I will tell my father about this issue. I think Zuma will even be afraid of my father.... So Nigerians will be free...
,,,,,,,GMB son,,,,,

beta tell your fada now

South africa again,,this people are so provoking, always having stupid egos in mind, claiming to be better than any other african country with their clueless ignorance..black heart people, I just hope they won't hold their country ransom someday when they realise how miserable they will look to others

Humblega:
when is Nigeria evacuating Nigerians.

June 12

stigman:

June 12

lol. If it continue like ds many life would av been lost b4 dn

Rose2014:
Did Malawians check their tribes before evacuating their country people from SA

Imagine a region in Nigeria calling others immigrants,yet we're all stuck with green passports while traveling out.

What a country!

Most Nigerians see themselves as one when we are outside the country because we kind of inter-dependent on each. Here in Nairobi, you will see Nigerians from different tribes eating at a restaurant owned by another Nigerian, also using it as a contact point to gather info that helps your stay here.

Pavore9:


Most Nigerians see themselves as one when we are outside the country because we kind of inter-dependent on each. Here in Nairobi, you will see Nigerians from different tribes eating at a restaurant owned by another Nigerian, also using it as a contact point to gather info that helps your stay here.

so una dey kenya too,no country wey nija peeps no dey truely sha

SHARIAREPORTERS:
we nid to wait for buhari to come do d magic

Dularkpo, why don't you tell your useless president to use those redundant planes in his presidential fleet to go airlift our brothers and sisters out of that country?? As at last count, there were 11 jets. This is the time to put them to good use.

walemoney007:
so una dey kenya too,no country wey nija peeps no dey truely sha

Yes o and we are at home here. You do not really miss Nigeria here as our music play on their local TV and radio stations throughout the day likewise Nigerian movies that is why Kenyans jokingly call a Nigerian they meet 'my broda' or igwe.

Food-wise they have Semolina and wheat which we immigrants prepare as swallow, so also is ewedu and okro. For food we don't have here like egusi, ogbono, crayfish etc we use igbo boys link to bring it over at N800 per kilo, just drop the parcel at the Lagos airport by friday and the next wednesday you go and pick it up from one of the lgbo guys shop. That is how the hair extension being sold here by Nigerian traders are brought in from Lagos to Nairobi on a weekly basis.

That is how we rock it!

I thought south Africa is no man's land

ok

South Africa is a nation of armed drunks and glue-sniffers who all erupt into violence at the drop of a hat, and with no provocation needed.

Next to North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and just about all other nations whose names end with "STAN", South Africa ranks VERY high on my list of chit-holes that I have never even considered visiting in the past, and will NEVER have reason to visit for as long as I live.

Any person who visits South Africa and is killed by the drunks there has simply been eliminated by Charles Darwin's laws of species selection, as a reward for making a decision of monumental idiocy to set foot in the Land of Drunks.

Nigeria should do the same .......but before that happen ,we will send the south Africans here into the lagoon

Who will save South Africa from self-destructing?