Tensions mounted on Thursday among foreigners displaced by xenophobic violence amid demands that the UN should step in to help with what looks set to become a long-term refugee crisis in Africa’s richest country.
About 300 people, mainly Somalians, began a hunger strike in a camp north of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, after attacking aid workers and other foreigners, police said.
One police officer was seriously injured and two foreigners suffered minor injuries in clashes on Wednesday. Protesters also cut an electricity cable and a water pipe in the camp.
In the southern town of George, one Somali man was killed in a knife fight with another Somali over donated clothes, police said.
More than 50 people were killed and some 40,000 foreigners fled their homes as a result of violence that erupted earlier this month in Johannesburg and spread to the rest of the country, according to central government figures — although this is likely to be a big underestimate.
In Cape Town alone, there are nearly 20,000 displaced people, divided among churches, community halls and tent camps.
Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille was mobbed when she visited the city’s largest camp — a tent city for 3,000 people on the beach near one of South Africa’s most famous scenic spots, the Cape of Good Hope.
A large crowd surrounded her, calling for UN protection and holding signs reading: “We don’t want to stay in South Africa. We don’t want to stay in a no-man’s land.”
Mothers with young babies lay on blankets inside a large striped marquee as dozens of people waited in line for food handouts on the Atlantic shore — a sight that would have been unthinkable last month.
More than 30,000 Mozambicans have so far gone home, and many Malawians are following suit. Somalis also say they want to go back to their country, but don’t have the means to get there because it is too far and therefore they need UN help.
Many Zimbabweans say they can’t go home because of the economic and political meltdown there.
Yusef Hassan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in South Africa, said the UN agency has given aid to those seeking shelter, and offered support to help authorities.
But he offered little hope to everyone demanding UN intervention.
“The responsibility to protect the rights of those people is that of the government that has given them asylum, and in this case that is the government of South Africa,” Hassan said.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
RSS