Wave of anti-foreigner violence in South Africa

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned a wave of looting and violence that has mostly targeted foreign nationals.

Dozens of people were arrested in Johannesburg on Monday. At least five people have been killed in the unrest which continued into Tuesday.

The surge in violence also saw mobs loot shops, torch vehicles, and target lorries that were being driven by foreign nationals.

Other African governments have issued warnings to their citizens over the violence. Separately, the African Union (AU) issued a statement condemning the “despicable acts” of violence “in the strongest terms”.

Attacks on businesses run by “foreign nationals is something totally unacceptable, something that we cannot allow to happen in South Africa,” Ramaphosa said in a video posted to Twitter.

This isn’t the first time the country has been rocked by anti-foreigner violence.

In 2015 xenophobic attacks became so bad that a sports field south of Durban was made into a makeshift refugee camp for Africans escaping the violent looters.

Via BBC/Al Jazeera