South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged African countries to work together to address migration, as his government faces growing pressure over recent att@cks on foreign nationals.
Speaking before the Pan-African Parliament on Monday, Ramaphosa said migration is a shared continental challenge that cannot be tackled by individual countries alone.
“As African countries, we have to acknowledge and address the conditions that drive migration in the first place,” he said.
“We need to work together to address issues like conflict, instability, governance failures, pov£rty and social discord.”
His remarks come after weeks of anti-migrant protests in South Africa, where xenophobic groups have accused undocumented migrants from other African countries of fuelling crime, worsening unemployment and putting pressure on public services.
Ramaphosa warned that poorly managed cross-border migration could thr£aten security and social stability.
According to an AFP tally based on figures from repatriating governments, more than 160,000 foreign nationals have left South Africa over the past two months in one of the country’s largest recent migrant exoduses.
At least four migrants have been k+lled in the v#olence, although some foreign governments claim the d+ath toll is higher.
Describing the att@cks as “sad and abhorrent,” Ramaphosa said, “We in South Africa deeply regret and mourn” the lives lost.
He added, “We’ve taken a firm stand against h@tred for people from other countries, xenophobia or Afrophobia.”
Ghana has called for an African Union debate on the v+olence, while two of its citizens have petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate what they described as “repeated xenophobic att@cks.” Pretoria has dismissed the move as “opportunistic.”
South Africa has witnessed repeated outbreaks of xenophobic v+olence over the past two decades, but this is the first time several African governments have simultaneously organised voluntary repatriations for thousands of their citizens.
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