Five Mozambique nationals were k!lled in “xenophobic attacks” in South Africa at the weekend, the Mozambican government said – the first d3aths officially linked to protests against illegal immigration sweeping the country.
About 800 Mozambican nationals were caught up in violence that broke out in the southern coastal city of Mossel Bay on Friday, a government statement said.
The violence prompted 300 Mozambicans to return to their country by their own means on Saturday, it said.
“Regrettably, seven Mozambican citizens have d!ed, 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, the statement said.
It said the remaining 500 people affected “have since been sheltered in a safe location in the Western Cape province, and the process of their repatriation to Mozambique is already under way”.
South African police said on Sunday they were investigating the d3aths of two men at an informal settlement in Mossel Bay, a port town about 230 miles (380km) east of Cape Town.
They did not give details and it was also not immediately clear what nationalities the two men were.
The area’s mayor, Dirk Kotze, voiced “deep concern and dismay at the current xenophobic attacks where people have been murdered, houses burned and families displaced”.
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old Pakistani vegetable supplier, identified as Naeem Hassan, was fatally attacked on Monday, June 1 while trying to remove his truck from a yard in Vereeniging. He d!ed at the scene.
Authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the incident.
Similarly, a 40-year-old Bangladeshi businessman, Zumur Kormokar, was shot d3ad during during an “armed robbery” at his shop in Nquutu, KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.
It was gathered that the suspects reportedly stole money and other items before fatally shooting Kormokar.
