Fear grips Nigerians in South Africa as xenophobic attacks return.
2 min read
If the fillers Umuaka Times obtained last week from South Africa are anything to go by, the unwanted attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa have returned with full force and a few of them have so far been killed and many others wounded. As at press time last week, no mention of any intervention by South African authorities to end the killings and hostilities in the country.
From the reports of Umuaka Times correspondents in South Africa, trouble started in the city in East Rand region of Gauteng known as Germiston or kwaDukathole when a group of armed Zulu men started moving from house to house and shop to shop asking Nigerians to be paying illegal taxes to them or leave the area for them to take total control of the area. The refusal of Nigerians to comply with any of their demands provoked them and the xenophobic attacks began.
Last month, Oscar, a Nigerian businessman from Ideato Imo State who owned a popular night club in the area was brutally murdered over the same reason. Another Nigerian fellow known as Ite was also shot dead a couple of days ago in the same area of Germiston by South African “xenophobists.” There is also a report of several others who sustained bullet wounds.
Nigerians living in Germiston have so far fled their homes and businesses and guess what, the bad boys of South Africa ended up looting their shops and homes as the owners have all fled. A report Umuaka Times came across last week claimed that Nigerians and other nationals in the area were said to have started thinking of how to launch reprisal attacks and reclaim their homes and businesses. A fellow who spoke with Umuaka Times correspondents on phone angrily said, “We cannot leave all we have laboured for over the years for these lazy fools. We must fight them back and reclaim our rightful belongings. It is only once that one has to die.”
Some Nigerians who spoke to Umuaka Times under caution complained that the moment they, the foreign nationals start implementing their fight back mechanism, the government will then wade into the crisis. They accused the government of South Africa of insensitivity.
For now, the fate of Nigerians and other African nationals living in South Africa especially in the Germiston area hangs in the balance.
As at press time last week, the Nigerian Embassy in South Africa was yet to issue an official statement to the ongoing crisis.
