Ghana president pushes for AU debate on S/Africa anti-migrant unrest

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President of Ghana, John Mahama

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Ghana’s President John Mahama Thursday doubled down on his call for the African Union to address recent waves of anti-immigrant violence in South Africa, which he said was “escalating”.

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Two Ghanaians have meantime petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate “repeated xenophobic attacks” in South Africa, a move Pretoria has dismissed as “opportunistic”.

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South Africa, which has long drawn documented and undocumented African workers, has been rocked by weeks of protests and unrest targeting immigrants, who are accused of taking jobs and resources.

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More than 160,000 foreign nationals have left the country and several have been killed over the past two months as local groups increased violent hostility against undocumented migrants, putting Pretoria’s relations with other African governments under strain.

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Ghana first pushed for the AU to debate the violence in May, with Mahama noting that AU Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf had acknowledged the “urgent need” to table it for discussion at the bloc’s next summit due in February next year.

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“Placing this on the AU agenda gives South Africa a formal, constructive platform to share its perspective, and together, as a continent, work toward a lasting solution,” Mahama said in a social media post on Thursday.

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On Wednesday, Mahama held talks with the AU chief on the sidelines of an AU meeting in Accra where he said “it doesn’t appear that the South African authorities are responding to the magnitude that one would expect them to”.

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“The persons who are funding these xenophobic attacks are known and they have been left free to continue to do what they want to do,” he said in remarks broadcast by Ghana media.

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He said the AU should take an “interest” in the matter which “has the potential to wreck everything that we have worked for, African solidarity, African integration”.

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But he insisted that Ghana has “no ill will toward South Africa”.

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Earlier this month, Ghana postponed a planned visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Accra following the death of a Ghanaian national, although South African authorities said the killing was not linked to the anti-immigrant protests.

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