Ghana approves evacuation of 300 nationals from South Africa after attacks

Ghana has approved the immediate evacuation of 300 citizens from South Africa after a renewed wave of anti-immigrant protests and alleged xenophobic attacks raised alarm over the safety of West African migrants. The operation will run through Ghana’s High Commission in Pretoria, after the evacuees registered for help following an earlier Foreign Ministry advisory.

Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said President John Dramani Mahama granted approval for the removal, underscoring how quickly the diplomatic response has escalated as reported attacks spread anxiety among Ghanaians in South Africa. The evacuees were among those who had already contacted the mission in Pretoria, a sign that many were heeding official warnings before the government moved to bring them home.

The move comes after Ghana summoned South Africa’s acting high commissioner on April 23 over reported incidents involving Ghanaians. In one case in KwaZulu-Natal, a Ghanaian legal resident was allegedly confronted and told to leave South Africa and “fix his country.” South African police later said people involved in xenophobic acts would be identified, apprehended and brought to court, while Foreign Affairs Minister Ronald Lamola said such violence had no place in South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

The crisis has also moved onto the continental stage. On May 6, Ghana formally petitioned the African Union to place recurring xenophobic attacks in South Africa on the agenda for the AU’s Eighth Mid-Year Coordination Meeting, scheduled for June 24 to 27 in El Alamein, Egypt. Ghana said the attacks have caused deaths, destroyed investments and threatened the safety and wellbeing of African nationals, arguing that they cut against the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, continental solidarity and the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

South Africa has faced repeated outbreaks of anti-immigrant violence for years, with major episodes in 2008 and later flare-ups in 2015, 2016 and 2019. Authorities there have rejected blanket claims of xenophobia, describing some unrest as protests driven by illegal immigration and economic strain in a country where unemployment is above 30 percent and more than three million foreign nationals live. For Ghana and other African governments, the evacuation now reflects a broader regional test: how to protect citizens abroad while confronting the politics of economic frustration at home.