Nigeria, South-Africa join forces to tackle xenophobia, sets up busting monitor ~ Zeniths Blog

Nigeria, South-Africa join forces to tackle xenophobia, sets up busting monitor

– Nigeria and South Afirca are joining hands to tackle xenophobia

– Both countries are planning to set-up a xenophobia-busting monitor

– This was a meeting agreed after a meeting of both countries foreign affairs ministers

Nigeria and South Africa would launch a jointly run “early warning” system to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerian migrants.

Nigeria, South Africa to set-up xenophobia-busting monitor

Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his South African counterpart, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane addressing the press after their deliberations

This was the resolution after a meeting between Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his South African counterpart, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane on Monday, March 13.

The meeting was to diffuse soaring tensions over a recent string of attacks on migrants living in South Africa which has elicited reactions in Nigeria.

“The early warning centre would allow us keep each other abreast of issues and help prevent violence,” Nkoana-Mashabane said.

READ ALSO: TUC asks Nigeria to recall its high commissioner in South Africa over xenophobic attacks

The new violence-busting forum will meet every three months and will be made up of representatives from both countries and include immigration officials, business associations and civil society groups.

Nkoana-Mashabane denied that the attacks on foreign nationals were targeted at Nigerians, adding that citizens of other countries were also affected.

On his part, Onyeama said he had received assurances that Nigerians in South Africa would be able to live in peace, even as he called for an end to the “mass attacks”.

He added that groups in Nigeria calling for the retaliatory expulsion of South African residents and businesses “do not speak on behalf of government”.

Last week, militant groups in the Niger Delta instructed have 18 South African companies and personnel to leave the region or risk attacks because of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

href="http://ift.tt/2mDJgiZ" target="_blank">Similarly, business activities at MTN headquarters in Falomo, Lagos, on Friday, March 3, were disrupted over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa by protesters under the aegis of the Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy Centre.

The Nigerian government last month called for the African Union to step in to stop xenophobic attacks on its citizens in South Africa.

Resonding to the crisis, President Jacob Zuma condemned the wave of xenophobic unrest and called for calm and restraint, saying that migrants should not be used as a scapegoat for the country’s widespread crime problem.

There were several incidents last month of South African locals attacking migrants from Africa and elsewhere and their businesses in both the administrative capital Pretoria and the commercial capital Johannesburg.

According to the Nigerian Union in South Africa, there are about 800,000 Nigerians in the country, many of them living in Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) on Friday, March 11 staged a peaceful protest in Ibadan against the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

The students in their hundreds went round the metropolis to demonstrate against what they called inhuman treatment of Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa.