Nigerians stage protest at the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria over xenophobic attacks

Nigerians in South Africa stormed the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa, to protest xenophobic attacks directed at them in South Africa.

The protesters, mostly made up of victims of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, said on Thursday, August 29, that they are angered by the recent massive looting of foreign-owned shops in the city by some South Africans.

They complained that they lost properties and business investments when South Africans carried out an attack on foreigners on Wednesday, August 28, at Pretoria business district. 

South African indigenes carried out the attack in anger after a taxi operator was killed by a yet-to-be-identified man. During the attack, they resorted to looting shops owned by foreigners in their country and mostly Nigerians were the ones affected by this.

The Nigerians affected said they no longer feel safe in South Africa and accused the Nigerian representatives in South Africa of being slow in responding to their plight.

However, Defence Adviser, Nigerian High Commission in South Africa, Abubakar Mustapha, condemned the protesters for venting anger on the commission by destroying some properties.

“The way they went about it was quite unfortunate, they scaled the fence and almost destroyed the gate,” Mustapha said.

Nigeria High Commission officers later visited the scenes of the looting to see the level of damage done on businesses owned by Nigerians.