GODFREY ONYEAMA CONDEMNS XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA_Ada Nkong

Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Monday took to his twitter handle to condemn the renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa, describing the perpetrators as “mindless criminals”.
The minister was reacting to videos of the burning and looting of Nigerian businesses in South Africa trending online.
Onyeama, said , ‘definitive measures’ would be taken to address the situation,adding that there was urgent need to end the attacks.
He, however, did not say what the definite measures are. His tweet reads “Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection.
Enough is enough. We will take definitive measures”.
The attacks on Nigerians are part of wider xenophobic attacks on foreigners in the rainbow nation.
South Africans had Sunday begun fresh attacks, looting and burning of businesses and properties belonging to foreigners and in the process killed three people, while another is still receiving treatment for smoke inhalation.
The attack, the second within a week, began on Sunday morning in Jeppestown area of Johannesburg when a building was set on fire by angry mobs.
Later on Sunday evening, some group of violent locals suspected to be Zulu hostel dwellers attacked Jules street in Malvern, Johannesburg, looting and burning shops.
Similar violence had occurred on August 28 in Pretoria Business District as indigenes angered by the death of a taxi operator apparently thought to be killed by a Nigerian went on the rampage.
The said driver was, however, allegedly killed by a Tanzanian which sparked the violence that resorted to looting of shops owned by Nigerians and some other foreigners in that country.
The government of South Africa had threatened a crackdown but has so far been unable to prevent acts of violence.
On August 28, President Muhammadu Buhari and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, met on the sidelines of a Summit in Japan and both leaders agreed to meet in October.
This latest development indicates xenophobia will be top of the agenda when both leaders meet.