Nigeria has issued one of its firmest diplomatic warnings to South Africa in recent years, stating that “all options remain on the table” should attacks on Nigerian nationals continue. The statement, released on Sunday by the spokesperson of Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, followed the deaths of two Nigerians within days of one another, incidents that Abuja says form part of a wider and troubling pattern of violence against foreigners in South Africa.
According to the ministry, one victim, Emeka Iroegbu, died after alleged mistreatment by officers of the Tshwane Metro Police in Sunnyside, Pretoria. Nigerian authorities linked the same officers to the earlier death of another citizen, Nnaemeka Ekpenyong, in April, noting that no arrests had followed despite the identities of those involved reportedly being known to the South African Police Service. A second man, Musa Yunana Joe, known widely as Big Joe, was shot dead outside his shop in Witbank, Mpumalanga, by unidentified gunmen, according to details corroborated by Vanguard’s reporting on the Federal Government’s statement.
The Nigerian government also took issue with remarks attributed to a South African government spokesperson, who reportedly urged departing Nigerians to disclose the location of illegal drugs, language Abuja described as inflammatory and capable of reinforcing harmful stereotypes. It further criticised anti-immigration formations such as Operation Dudula and March on March, accusing them of stoking hostility toward migrants from across the continent, not only from Nigeria.
Both governments have, over the years, tried to manage these recurring frictions through structures such as the Early Warning Mechanism and the Nigeria South Africa Bi National Commission, yet reports of harassment and unresolved deaths have persisted. The Nigerian Union South Africa and the Nigerian Citizens Association South Africa have separately claimed that more than one hundred Nigerians have died in South Africa over the past seven years, a figure that has not been independently verified by South African authorities but which underscores the depth of grievance within the diaspora community, as detailed in Vanguard’s coverage of the community associations’ statement.
South African officials, for their part, have consistently maintained that the state alone bears responsibility for enforcing immigration law and have cautioned citizens against vigilante action. President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously stated that responsibility for such enforcement rests with government institutions rather than private actors or civic movements, a position reiterated amid the current wave of protest activity, as reported by Al Jazeera’s analysis of the rising tensions.
This is not the first occasion on which the continent’s two largest economies have found themselves at diplomatic odds over the safety of migrants. Xenophobic violence in South Africa dating back to 2008 has periodically claimed the lives of nationals from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia, Malawi and elsewhere, in addition to Nigerians, prompting recurrent protest and, on occasion, evacuation efforts by affected governments. Mozambique’s government has reported that several of its citizens died as a direct consequence of the most recent unrest, a reminder that the pattern of violence in question is regional in its reach rather than confined to any single nationality.
For Nigeria, the government has said that evacuation of citizens wishing to return home is ongoing, while urging those remaining in South Africa to exercise caution, avoid areas associated with unrest and consider relocating to safer neighbourhoods. Abuja has also appealed to Nigerians at home to refrain from reprisals against South African businesses or citizens, insisting that diplomatic engagement remains its preferred route.
What the episode brings into sharper focus, beyond the immediate bilateral tension, is a broader continental question about how African states extend protection and dignity to fellow Africans moving within the continent’s own borders. The language of pan African solidarity has long featured in the diplomatic vocabulary of both Pretoria and Abuja, forged in part through Nigeria’s historical support for the anti apartheid struggle. Whether that solidarity translates into consistent protection for ordinary citizens, workers and traders living and working across borders remains the more searching test, and one that neither government has yet fully answered.
