Mozambique said five of its citizens were killed in “xenophobic attacks”. South Africa Efforts were underway to repatriate hundreds of others over the weekend and into Tuesday.
However, South African police only confirmed that two Mozambicans had died in the violence in the southern coastal town of Mossel Bay, the first killings to be officially linked to the wave of anti-migrant protests ongoing in the country.
Police said a South African teenager also died, and dozens of huts were set on fire, some containing people, according to reports.
Protests against undocumented foreign nationals have been rising in South Africa in recent weeks, leading Ghana to evacuate about 300 of its citizens last week. Nigeria Repatriation plans also announced.
mozambique Seven Mozambican citizens were killed after violence broke out on Friday in Mossel Bay, about 380 km (235 miles) east of Cape Town, the government media office said in a statement late Monday.
It said five of the deaths were “a direct result of xenophobic attacks and the other two died as a result of a road accident while they were traveling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique”. But South African police told AFP that only two Mozambican citizens, aged 27 and 43, were killed in an informal settlement adjacent to Mossel Bay, both of whom died of multiple injuries caused by the attack.
He said that early on Sunday, police found the body of an 18-year-old South African in the same area, who had been stabbed to death under unknown circumstances.
Mossel Bay's mayor, Dirk Kotze, over the weekend expressed “deep concern and dismay at the ongoing xenophobic attacks, where people have been murdered, homes burned and families displaced”.
As the continent's most industrialized economy, South Africa has long been a destination for legal and undocumented African workers, who have been accused by some marginalized groups of committing crimes and taking jobs from locals.
The national broadcaster, the SABC, said tensions broke out in Mossel Bay over allegations that undocumented migrants were being employed by construction companies. Local media reported that about 55 huts were set on fire.
Dolinda Mabunda, a Mozambican national, told the Mossel Bay Advertiser: “We were still inside when people started burning our house. I just took what I could and I ran away.
“I will go back (home) because we are not safe,” Silvino Chauque, another migrant, told the SABC. He said he had lost all his property in the unrest.
The Mozambican government said that 300 Mozambican citizens had returned home on Saturday. “The remaining more than 500 people have since been sheltered in a safe location in the Western Cape province, and as of June 1, the process of their repatriation to Mozambique is already underway,” it said.
After a citizen-led organization demanded that undocumented foreign nationals leave South Africa by June 30, there have been reports of vigilante groups checking the documents of foreign nationals and forcing small businesses run by non-South Africans to close. This action has no official support and has been criticized by the authorities.
Last month, hundreds of foreign nationals from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Somalia sought safety in the eastern port city of Durban, saying locals were going door-to-door asking them to leave by the end of the month. Several countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, have urged their citizens in South Africa to exercise caution.
South Africa has experienced repeated waves of xenophobic violence over the past decades. The latest surge comes as political parties seek support ahead of local government elections in November.
In 2008, anti-immigrant riots killed 62 people, including 21 South Africans, and displaced thousands more. Further outbreaks occurred in 2015 and 2016.