The police in South Africa said they have arrested over 70 persons in connection with the looting and razing of foreign-owned shops in the country’s commercial capital of Johannesburg on Sunday.
The attack on Sunday made it the second outbreak of urban rioting against foreigners in the country within the space of one week.
The Sunday attack was followed with a march in Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD), where the locals asked foreigners to leave their country.
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But speaking in a statement posted on Facebook, the office of the provincial commissioner, Guateng, said: “Police are condemning all acts of violence directed at the businesses and the looting of shops described as those of foreign nationals by criminal opportunists in areas that include Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg Central,” adding “several arrests have also been effected for serious crimes including public violence, malicious damage to property and theft. A total of seventy (70) people have been arrested since Sunday.”
The police blamed “Irresponsible use and abuse of social media” for the increased attacks.
They said the Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela had “instructed all commanders to take strong action against the perpetrators as this state offairs can not be allowed to continue.”
South Africa’s reaction is coming after Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, reacted strongly to the latest waves of attacks in a tweet on Monday.
Onyeama decried the attacks as “sickening and depressing”, while also noting that the Nigerian Government “will take definitive measures.”
The minister also lamented the inability of the police in the country to protect foreigners while “mindless criminals” continue to loot and burn their shops.
The Nigerian Government had in 2015 recalled its ambassador to South Africa following a series of attacks on immigrants in the country.