The Zimbabwe government has dispatched a team of its police force to South Africa to protect who have been displaced by xenophobic violence in Durban, reports said on Thursday.
Zimbabwean Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi told a local newspaper that government had dispatched a team of police officers to South Africa to protect stranded Zimbabweans.
“We are working out modalities to help our nationals who are in South Africa, we are monitoring developments there with keen interest and we have dispatched a team there to assist so that we protect our nationals,” Mohadi said.
“We are worried about the welfare of our citizens and we will not watch helplessly our nationals being subjected to such treatment. We have engaged our counterparts and are also trying by all means possible to help them (those in South Africa).”
The attacks increased over the past two weeks as South Africans accused foreigners of engaging in criminal activities and taking away their jobs.
Reports yesterday indicated that the wave that was initially concentrated in Durban had moved into central Johannesburg with some Zimbabweans being reported to be hiding in basements of various buildings.
This comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s embassy in South Africa said it was investigating reports that two of the six people killed in xenophobic attacks in Durban are Zimbabweans.
Isaac Moyo, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, said they were urgently trying to confirm if the country’s nationals were among the dead.
“At the moment, the issue of deaths is still hearsay and we’re yet to verify with the assistance of the police. We’ve heard that there were some Zimbabweans among the dead, a woman and a toddler, but for now we can’t confirm as we’re yet to visit the mortuaries so that we’re able to positively identify the bodies. What I noticed [on a visit to Durban to see the injured and displaced] is that we had quite a number of our people who were limping and some had swollen heads,” he said.
South Africa is in the grip of a fast-spreading wave of anti-foreigner violence – the worst since 2008, when 60 people were killed and 50,000 forced to flee their homes, among them Zimbabweans.
Meanwhile, The Zimbabwe government has dispatched a team of its police force to South Africa to protect who have been displaced by xenophobic violence in Durban, reports said on Thursday.
Zimbabwean Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi told a local newspaper that government had dispatched a team of police officers to South Africa to protect stranded Zimbabweans.
“We are working out modalities to help our nationals who are in South Africa, we are monitoring developments there with keen interest and we have dispatched a team there to assist so that we protect our nationals,” Mohadi said.
“We are worried about the welfare of our citizens and we will not watch helplessly our nationals being subjected to such treatment. We have engaged our counterparts and are also trying by all means possible to help them (those in South Africa).”
The attacks increased over the past two weeks as South Africans accused foreigners of engaging in criminal activities and taking away their jobs.
Reports yesterday indicated that the wave that was initially concentrated in Durban had moved into central Johannesburg with some Zimbabweans being reported to be hiding in basements of various buildings.
This comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s embassy in South Africa said it was investigating reports that two of the six people killed in xenophobic attacks in Durban are Zimbabweans.
Isaac Moyo, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, said they were urgently trying to confirm if the country’s nationals were among the dead.
“At the moment, the issue of deaths is still hearsay and we’re yet to verify with the assistance of the police. We’ve heard that there were some Zimbabweans among the dead, a woman and a toddler, but for now we can’t confirm as we’re yet to visit the mortuaries so that we’re able to positively identify the bodies. What I noticed [on a visit to Durban to see the injured and displaced] is that we had quite a number of our people who were limping and some had swollen heads,” he said.
South Africa is in the grip of a fast-spreading wave of anti-foreigner violence – the worst since 2008, when 60 people were killed and 50,000 forced to flee their homes, among them Zimbabweans.
Meanwhile, militant group in northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram has released a tape stating that they are giving South African government 24 hours within which to make the Xenophobic attacks come to an end failure which the dreaded Islamic militant group will kill all South Africans in Nigeria.
Comments
About Author
