Mozambique on Tuesday said five of its nationals had been killed in ‘xenophobic attacks’ in the South African coastal city of Mossel Bay.
According to a government statement, about 800 Mozambicans were caught up in the violence that broke out in Mossel Bay on Friday, an occurrence that prompted 300 of them to return home on Saturday.
“Regrettably, seven Mozambican citizens died, five of them as a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks and the other two as a result of a road accident that occurred when they were traveling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique,” it said.
Further, it said the remaining 500 were sheltered in a safe location in South Africa’s Western Cape Province and were scheduled to be repatriated to their country on Tuesday.
The deaths are linked to the countrywide protests against undocumented immigration that have lately rocked South Africa.
Waves of xenophobic violence have been recurring in South Africa since 2008, with the latest spike in anti-migrant protests coming amidst preparations for November’s local government elections.
On Sunday, South African police said they were investigating the deaths of two men at an informal settlement in Mossel Bay.
They, however, did not state whether the deaths were linked to the protests. It was also not immediately made clear what the nationalities of the two men were.
