Government condemns ‘sisterly’ Nigeria for recall of its envoy

South Africa reacted angrily on Sunday to Nigeria’s decision to recall its ambassador from Pretoria over a wave of mob attacks on African migrants that killed at least seven people.

“We are not sure which actions or behavior of the South African government the Nigerian government is protesting,” the South African foreign ministry said in a statement.

“If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda,” the ministry added, lamenting Nigeria’s “unfortunate and regrettable step”.

Taking aim at its rival for economic and political dominance in Africa, Pretoria said it had held off blaming Nigeria’s government when 84 South Africans were killed in the col-

people lapse of a church building in Lagos last year.

South Africa had also refrained from blaming the Nigerian authorities for the “more than nine months’ delay” in the repatriation of the bodies “or for the fact that when these bodies eventually returned, they were in a state that they could not be touched or viewed as required by our burial practice”.

The testy statement from Pretoria comes a day after Nigeria announced it was recalling its ambassador for consultations over “the ongoing xenophobia” in the country.

South African President Jacob Zuma deployed troops last week to quell the violence in Johannesburg and the port city of Durban, which forced thousands of people from their homes over the past few weeks. No deadly attacks have been reported in the past week.

The Nigerian foreign ministr y said t he attacks by mobs accusing foreigners of stealing their jobs had “created fear and uncertainty” among African migrants in “the former apartheid enclave”.

On Wednesday, Musiliu Obanikoro, the country’s jun- ior foreign minister, summoned South Africa’s high commissioner in Abuja to demand Pretoria take “concrete steps to quell the unrest”.

Obanikoro also urged South Africa to compensate the victims of the attacks.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans have been repatriated by their governments over the unrest, which has drawn fierce criticism of South Africans from people in other parts of the continent.