Xenophobic violence simmer in S Africa
South African police detained more than 30 people overnight as xenophobic violence simmered around the economic hub Johannesburg, officials said yesterday.
The riots are believed to be fuelled by widely-held beliefs that the country's economic woes are being caused by foreign nationals.
Anti-foreigner violence that erupted in the country's eastern port city of Durban several weeks ago has so far left at least six people dead, spreading to Johannesburg, displacing thousands and sparking alarm at the United Nations and in neighbouring countries.
"In South Africa, xenophobic attacks over the last three weeks have... displaced over 5,000 foreign nationals," the UN refugee agency said, adding it was "extremely concerned".
Several thousand foreigners have fled their homes to shelter in makeshift camps amid the violence, and neighbouring Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique announced plans to evacuate their citizens.
Overnight, small groups attacked shops in several areas around Johannesburg, police said. Police had to use rubber bullets to disperse the looters in Alexandra, an impoverished township north of the city, he said.
This is not the first wave of anti-foreigner violence in South Africa. In January, foreign shopkeepers in and around the vast township of Soweto, south of Johannesburg, were forced to flee and six were killed as looters rampaged through the area.
And in 2008, 62 people were killed in xenophobic violence across the city's townships.
Meanwhile, South African President Jacob Zuma yesterdaysaid he has cancelled a state visit to Indonesia in order to deal with a wave of xenophobic violence against immigrants and other foreigners.
"We reiterate our message that there can be no justification for the attacks on foreign nationals. These attacks go against everything we believe in," Zuma said in the statement on his cancelled visit.
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