Ghanaian President John Mahama has renewed his call for the African Union to address rising anti-immigrant violence in South Africa, warning that the situation is escalating and could undermine African unity and integration.
Mahama made the remarks on Thursday amid growing tensions over attacks targeting foreign nationals in South Africa, where immigrant communities have faced protests and violence over allegations that they are taking jobs and competing for scarce resources.
According to reports, more than 160,000 foreign nationals have left South Africa in the past two months, while several people have reportedly died as hostility towards undocumented migrants intensified.
Ghana had earlier called for the African Union to formally discuss the issue, with Mahama saying AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf had acknowledged the urgency of placing the matter on the agenda of the bloc’s next summit.
“Placing this on the AU agenda gives South Africa a formal, constructive platform to share its perspective, and together, as a continent, work toward a lasting solution,” Mahama said in a social media post.
The Ghanaian president also met Youssouf on Wednesday on the sidelines of an AU meeting in Accra, where he expressed concern that South African authorities were not responding adequately to the scale of the violence.
Mahama alleged that individuals financing the attacks were known but had not been sufficiently restrained, warning that the crisis could damage decades of efforts towards African solidarity and integration.
Youssouf described the violence as a major concern for the AU Commission, saying he had previously discussed the issue with South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Ronald Lamola. According to him, Lamola maintained that illegal migration should be addressed through established legal channels.
Meanwhile, two Ghanaian nationals have petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged repeated xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
The petitioners, former Ghanaian government spokesperson Palgrave Boakye-Danquah and counterterrorism analyst Emmanuel Kotin, accused South African authorities of failing to adequately protect foreign nationals from alleged killings and hate speech.
They also claimed that the authorities had failed to prevent, investigate and prosecute the alleged attacks.
However, South African government spokesman Chrispin Phiri dismissed the petition as opportunistic, arguing that it did not meet the threshold required for an ICC investigation. He added that South Africa had laws in place to deal with hate crimes and hate speech.
Earlier this month, Ghana postponed a planned visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa following the death of a Ghanaian national, although South African authorities said the killing was not connected to the anti-immigrant protests.
Ramaphosa subsequently dispatched Foreign Minister Lamola to meet with Mahama.
The Ghanaian president said Ghana had “no ill will toward South Africa” but remained deeply concerned about the violence and the significant economic losses suffered by Africans affected by the unrest.
