Mozambique says five citizens killed in S Africa ‘xenophobic attacks’

MAPUTO

The Mozambique government said five of its nationals were killed in “xenophobic attacks” in South Africa at the weekend, with local police June 2 confirming two deaths.

The killings in the southern coastal town of Mossel Bay are the first to be officially linked to the latest wave of protests against illegal migrants sweeping South Africa.

The Mozambique government’s media office said in a statement late on June 1 that violence broke out on May 29, focused on Mossel Bay, about 380 kilometers east of Cape Town.

“Regrettably, seven Mozambican citizens have died, five of them as a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks and the other two as a result of a road accident, when they were travelling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique,” it said.

But the South African police told AFP only two Mozambique nationals were killed in Mossel Bay late May 29, declining to say whether they died in anti-migrant violence.

The region has seen protests against illegal migrants similar to demonstrations that have swept South Africa in recent weeks, notably in the financial capital Johannesburg and east coast city of Durban.

Local media said a protest that started in Asla Park on Friday had escalated, resulting in several houses being torched and hundreds of people displaced.

The Mozambique government said the violence prompted 300 Mozambican nationals to return to their country by their own means on May 30.