The recent xenophobic attacks against foreign-owned homes and businesses in South Africa—specifically, against homes and businesses owned by foreign nationals from other African and Asian countries—have been an issue of great concern on the African continent and for the international community. While these attacks violate the dignity of humanity in general, they also rupture the particular fraternal unity that is supposed to exist among Africans. The violent activities, which include killing, mobbing, robbing, looting and deprivation to health facilities, have caused severe physical harm, loss of life, and the mass displacement of vulnerable people. Many South Africans blame immigrants for high unemployment, deep poverty, and competition for scarce public resources. Local politicians and vigilante groups often scapegoat foreign nationals for crime and local job shortages, while poor governance and misinformation further fuel the anti-immigrant violence. Migrants are often blamed for straining public health, housing, and social systems.
Home to Africa’s most industrialized economy, South Africa has attracted migrants from many African countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, and Malawi. It is regarded as the top migration destination on the continent due to its advanced economy, which attracts people looking for work and for a better living. However, migrants keep facing violent attacks from the locals. There is a severe wave of anti-immigrant unrest and xenophobic attacks that have triggered a mass exodus of foreign nationals. Anti-immigrant groups and vigilante movements, such as “Operation Dudula” (an anti-immigrant social movement that is registered as a political party) and “March and March” (a self-described “grassroots” civic organization), continue to launch violent attacks on the foreign nationals.
The anti-immigrant movements have resulted in violence and displacement, door-to-door intimidation, looting, and assaults. They have forced tens of thousands of migrants, including those with deep local roots, to flee their homes and businesses. Displacement has been further exacerbated by the recent arbitrary deadlines of June 30, 2026, issued by the civic organization “March and March” for foreign nationals to leave the country. Reports indicate that nearly 180,000 migrants have left or been repatriated, with countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe setting up emergency flights and border processing camps. Ghana and Nigerian officials raised alarm, with civil society groups even petitioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) over state failures to curb the violence.
While violent attacks are not limited to South Africa, state-sanctioned xenophobia has a long and complex history in the country. For example, in 2008, a series of riots and violent attacks against foreigners of varying origin were reported to have resulted in the deaths of more than sixty people and the displacement of over 100,000 immigrants. Leading up to and following the violence, there was a history of locals mugging, robbing, and beating immigrants. Deep-rooted, anti-immigrant sentiment can be traced back to the apartheid.[1] Sporadic waves of violence erupted against foreign nationals in 2015 and 2019, primarily targeting Africans and Asians. This was worsened in 2021-2022 with the rise of vigilante Operation Dudula. Since 2024, the country’s deteriorating socioeconomic conditions, including an unemployment rate of over 43 percent, coincided with the rise of anti-immigrant activism and the formation of newer vigilante groups known as “March and March.” These groups scapegoat foreign nationals as the cause of South Africa’s economic woes, poor service delivery, and high rates of crime, despite studies that disprove these claims. These groups have prevented foreign nationals from accessing healthcare and education in public facilities.
Since 2008, South Africa has been grappling with intermittent but widespread xenophobic harassment and violence against African and Asian foreign nationals living in the country, whether they are refugees, asylum seekers, documented, or undocumented migrants. However, the recent anti-immigrant mobilization in 2026 has again drawn the world’s attention to South Africa. The Operation Dudula and March and March groups continued with inhuman activities on both young and old, such as killing, torture, looting, and robbing. Many studies found indications of xenophobic attitudes towards these refugees, typified by denied access to primary healthcare to which they were technically entitled. For instance, in January 2026, members of Operation Dudula occupied a school and prevented people of foreign origin to enter. In May 2026, armed demonstrations erupted in South Africa against what they called “illegal foreigners.” In Johannesburg, demonstrators would identify whether a bystander is a foreigner before attacking them. This continental backlash threatens tourism, trade, diplomacy, and investment opportunities in Africa’s largest economy, and it is derailing its constitutional democracy.
The renewed anti-immigrant protests and vigilante activity have resulted in deaths, displacement, and reparation efforts by several African governments.[2] For instance, on May 4, Nigerian Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu announced that the government had launched a “voluntary operation” to return 150 of their citizens, adding that two Nigerians were killed in incidents connected to South African security personnel a month prior. On May 13, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced plans to evacuate about 300 citizens from South Africa following attacks targeting sub-Saharan African migrants. The first batch of 300 Ghanaian nationals evacuated from South Africa arrived at Accra International Airport on May 27 and were received by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chief of Staff, and other government officials. On June 2, Mozambique reported that five of its nationals were killed during anti-immigration violence in Mossel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa over the week, along with two others deceased while trying to return to their country. Mozambique said that over 300 Mozambicans returned home by their own means and that an additional 500 were going to be repatriated. By mid-July, the South African government announced that over 50,000 foreign nationals had been deported or repatriated following a migration management plan launched in response to the xenophobic attacks. The attacks continue to have a negative impact on South Africa’s foreign relations with a number of other African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Mozambique.
The spate of anti-immigrant attacks in the country, which recently climaxed with a “get out” ultimatum to immigrants from other African nations, has been a rude awakening. Even after budgeting for the arguable legitimacy of the protesters’ demands, there is still something deeply upsetting about the spectacle of Africans attacking other Africans in an African country where the philosophy of ubuntu—“I am because we are”—has become a mantra.[3] Literally translated, Ubuntu means “I am because we are,” or a person is a person through other people. This can be seen in the cordial relationship between the people and their hospitality to strangers. Ubuntu is a classic example of the qualities of solidarity, unity, hospitality, and love that make traditional African society beautiful and humane.
Obadare expresses concern that “at any rate, beyond ‘mere’ citizenship, what the crisis in South Africa invariably does is to put an asterisk against the idea of a coherent African identity, something that is not just taken for granted, but is historically construed as the ideational anchor of Pan-Africanism. If, in a country that trumpets African solidarity at every turn, fellow Africans are not even treated with the courtesy one would normally extend to strangers, what is the meaning of Africanness?” This concern is also expressed by Emmanuel Katongole, that “What does it mean to be African? What is it that I share with other Africans that make them ‘my people’ more than any history, friendship, or relationship with Europeans or Americans could ever make them ‘my people’? Is it the color of my skin, history, geography, or culture that makes me naturally, and this without effort, allied to other ‘Africans’ more than a Belgian or Norwegian? What does it mean to belong to a group of people called Africans?”[4]
Why is it that, in a moment when agitation about African solidarity has never been more clamorous, Africans feel more welcome outside of Africa than in other African countries? What is the meaning of solidarity amid the crises and killings in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia, to name just a few examples? What does it mean to speak of community, given the way in which families are being torn apart by youth emigration and attendant social dislocation? If, as Kwame Anthony Appiah submits, all identities are relative, what, if anything, is fixed or stable about African identity?[5]
Obadare continues that: “While the dust will eventually settle – as it always does – on arguably the ugliest episode in post-apartheid South African history, the damage to relations between the country and the rest of Africa will take time to heal. Having already cost the country considerable goodwill within Africa and beyond, it will most certainly undermine its well-known aspirations to continental leadership, undermining regional networks and alliances that the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) has labored to construct over the years. For the foreseeable future, too, South Africa will find it hard to project itself as the hub and driver of the African Renaissance, a campaign to which former President Thabo Mbeki (1999 – 2008) devoted considerable energy and resources.”[6]
In the same vein, Charles Anyim writes: “If Madiba Nelson Mandela was to be alive today, I am absolutely certain that he would have been appalled at what has become of his beloved South Africa. He would have been disgusted at how things have quickly degenerated in a country for which he gave his life…. He would have been completely distraught at insanity that has seized the land. Madiba would have most definitely been vociferous with his criticism of how the philosophy of Ubuntu has turned into absolute joke. The apostle of Ubuntu, Nelson Mandela, would have been wondering what in hell happened to the ancient South African Philosophy of humanity or humanness.”[7] The unfolding tragedy in South Africa, therefore, is an opportunity for a rigorous and earnest debate about African identity and solidarity.
The systemic attacks against foreign nationals in the South Africa have escalated to the level of crimes against humanity. Even though South Africa’s constitution as well as international human rights law protects the right to protest, that does not include permission to commit violence. South Africa’s constitution guarantees human rights, dignity, and equality to all within its borders, not only citizens. South Africa is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which impose obligations for states to protect everyone in their jurisdiction against attacks motivated by discrimination, including on grounds of ethnicity, social origin, or birth. South Africa is also party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; attacks on foreign nationals have been a matter of concern for the committee that monitors state compliance with the convention for over a decade. Therefore, South African authorities should intensify efforts to address anti-immigrant sentiments and violence to ensure the safety and protection of at-risk foreign nationals in the country.[8]
While this piece addresses how the unity of Africa has been jeopardized by the activities of anti-immigrant groups in South Africa, it is also a general call to promote the dignity, equality, and rights of every human person, regardless of nationality.
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[1] Dodson (2010) Locating Xenophobia: Debate, Discourse, and Everyday Experience in Cape Town, South Africa in Africa Today, 56 (3):2
[2] Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka, “South Africa: New Waves of Xenophobic Attacks, Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org, Retrieved 22 August 2026.
[3] Ebenezer Obadare, Africa: Whither African Solidarity? July 9, 2026. https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng, Retrieved 28 August 2026.
[4] Emmanuel Katongole, “What does it mean to be an African?” 2024, Church Life Journal, https://churchlifejounal.nd.edu, Retrieved 28 August 2026.
[5] Obadare, Africa: Whither African Solidarity?
[6] Obadare, Africa: Whither African Solidarity?
[7] Charles Anyiam, Wither Ubuntu? Wither African Unity? August 17 2026, www.thecable.ng, Retrieved 27 August 2026.
[8] Masiko-Mpaka, “South Africa: New Waves of Xenophobic Attacks”