Nigeria counts its losses in South Africa attacks

NIGERIANS living in South Africa are counting their losses to the on-going xenophobic attacks in the former apartheid enclave.

The losses, according to Nigerian Consul-General in South Africa, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke, include: looted shops, razed ware points, two torched mechanic workshops, 11 burnt cars and two stolen cars.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ambassador Ajulu-Okeke yesterday put the value of the losses in the neighbourhood of 1.2 million Rand (about N21 million).

She told NAN by phone from Johannesburg, the South African capital, Nigeria was keeping records of the attacks on its citizens.

“Nigerians have compiled damage to their property and it is totalling about 1.2 million Rand or N21 million, which will be sent to the Federal Government for further action,’’ she was quoted as saying.

The President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Mr. Ikechukwu Anyene, confirmed that efforts were being made by the association in collaboration with the Nigerian Mission to resettle those affected.

He said Nigerians living in Jeppes, a town near Johannesburg, were mostly affected by the attacks.

Ikechukwu said: “We met about 300 Nigerians in Jeppes town, near Johannesburg, who fled for their safety and about 50 of them do not have any place to stay.

“We are making arrangements with the Nigerian mission in South Africa to get them a place to stay for their safety.

“The Nigerian union has also presented relief materials to those affected by the attacks and we are in touch with various branch chapters of the union in the provinces on their safety and security.”

 The envoy said that in Durban, two of the three Nigerians who were wounded during the attacks had been treated and discharged from the hospital.

The consul-general promised to return to Durban to assess the situation and meet with the provincial authority on security of Nigerians in that Province.

Her words: “The Nigerian mission in South Africa is on top of the situation. We are working hard to protect Nigerians in South Africa.

“Though, the task has not been easy, we are trying our best. In one of the hot spots at Jeppe, near Johannesburg, the mission assisted about 50 stranded Nigerians to re-settle.

“I have also visited the site of the attacks in Johannesburg to assess the damage and it was enormous.”

She assured that the Nigerian mission would meet with all Nigerian Union chapters in the nine provinces of South Africa to find strategies on how to check the attacks.

“I am bringing all Nigerians together so that we work out a vigilance and alert mechanism; they will also tell me what their challenges and issues are,” she said.

Mrs. Ajulu-Okeke said the mission and the Nigerian Union had been working cordially to meet the challenges caused by the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.