Ghana says it will evacuate 300 citizens from South Africa following a recent wave of protests against foreign nationals.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X on Tuesday that the Ghanaian president had granted approval for their \u201cimmediate evacuation\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the \u201cdistressed\u201d Ghanaians had registered at the country\u2019s embassy in Pretoria to be rescued in response to an advisory by the foreign ministry \u201cfollowing the latest wave of xenophobic attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last week, South African authorities denied that anyone had been attacked, saying the widely circulated videos were fake.<\/p>\n
On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the recent \u201cprotests and criminal acts directed at foreign nationals\u201d did not reflect government policy, describing them as \u201cisolated acts of criminality\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that South Africa would \u201cregulate migration, secure our borders and enforce our laws\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thousands of South Africans joined protests against illegal immigration, demanding the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals. Protesters say illegal immigration has had an impact on jobs, housing and crime.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Ghanaian embassy in South Africa advised nationals to be highly cautious and prioritise their safety by avoiding public gatherings and shut their shops or businesses in the port city of Durban ahead of a protest planned on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Ghana and Nigeria have recently summoned the South African envoys to their respective countries over the mistreatment and harassment of their citizens.<\/p>\n
Ghana has also written to the African Union (AU) asking it to discuss the issue, saying it posed a \u201cserious risk to the safety and wellbeing\u201d of Africans in South Africa.<\/p>\n
South Africa responded by saying it had \u201cnothing to hide\u201d. The government has condemned the circulation of what it called \u201cfake videos and images\u201d described by some as recordings of attacks on foreign nationals.<\/p>\n
Other countries that have warned their citizens in South Africa include Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
According to official figures, South Africa is home to more than three million foreigners, or about 5% of the population, but there are believed to be many more without papers.<\/p>\n
Xenophobia has long been an issue in the country and has been accompanied by occasional outbursts of deadly attacks.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghana says it will evacuate 300 citizens from South Africa following a recent wave of protests against foreign nationals. Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X on Tuesday that the Ghanaian president had granted approval for their \u201cimmediate evacuation\u201d. He said the \u201cdistressed\u201d Ghanaians had registered at the country\u2019s embassy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}