Over 40 Arrested in Recent Xenophobic Attack in South Africa

South African police arrested at least 41 people in Johannesburg on Monday, September 2^nd, following the unrest that was witnessed in the city’s Central Business District (CBD).

The police arrested them after what had seemed to have been a xenophobic attack on foreigners as hundreds of people took to the streets to loot valuables from business outfits, torching cars and buildings that are believed to be owned by foreigners as seen in a video that went viral.

The Xenophobic attack started on Sunday, September 1^st when an old building in Johannesburg’s CBD was set on fire and collapsed killing three people, after which the unrest spread to Pretoria, the Country’s capital.

South African media had reported xenophobic attack after business buildings owned by economic migrants in Marabastad were set on fire.

South African police were forced to use tear gas canisters and fire rubber bullets in an attempt to restore calm.

It is not the first time the world is witnessing such attacks in South Africa, as the country’s citizens have in the past been causing unrest blaming foreigners for the high unemployment plight in the country.

The attacks have been previously directed to economic migrants mainly from other African countries like Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Nigeria who were most affected in the recent attacks, and Pakistan and Bangladeshi nationals.

“The continuing attacks on Nigerians and businesses in South Africa are unacceptable,” the government of Nigeria said on twitter.

“Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection,” tweeted Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama.

South African Police Minister Bheki Cele, however, said that the attacks witnessed were criminal rather than xenophobic as nothing has sparked any form of conflict between South Africans and foreigners.

“Xenophobia is an excuse,” he said while addressing reporters.

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