Ghana delays evacuation of 800 citizens from South Africa

Ghana said Thursday it has delayed the evacuation of more than 800 of its citizens from South Africa after a viral video showing the alleged assault of a Ghanaian man triggered outrage.

The footage showing the attack on Emmanuel Asamoah, a Ghanaian living in South Africa, circulated widely on social media during the latest wave of xenophobic violence targeting foreign nationals in the country.

The Ghanaian foreign ministry said earlier this month that it was evacuating citizens from South Africa as a result.

Some 800 Ghanaians were to be evacuated starting Thursday, but the process was delayed because of the large numbers of evacuees and legal clearance procedures required by South Africa, the ministry said.

“Considering the numbers involved and the South African legal conditions that have to be met, including mandatory passenger screening, multi-institutional coordination and flight permits, the planned evacuation has been deferred by a few days,” the ministry said.

It said that Ghanaian and South African authorities had agreed to accelerate the process.

Only one Ghanaian showed up at South Africa’s O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday, AFP journalists at the airport reported.

Ghana’s government has promised to give those it is evacuating from South Africa a reintegration financial package and psycho-social support.

The latest tensions have revived uncomfortable debates across Africa about xenophobia, migration, and the gap between pan-African rhetoric and realities facing African migrants on the continent.

Ghana has increasingly pushed for the issue to receive broader continental attention and has tabled concerns around xenophobic violence within African Union discussions, arguing that recurring attacks threaten African integration and free movement ambitions under frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Earlier this month, Ghana’s foreign minister said he had formally petitioned that “requesting that the South African xenophobic attacks targeted at Africans be placed on the agenda” at the AU’s mid-year meeting due next month.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa last week moved to reassure other African countries, saying “opportunists” had orchestrated anti-immigrant attacks on foreigners and that “there is no place in South Africa for xenophobia, ethnic mobilisation, intolerance or violence”.

Asamoah, the man in the viral video, has since returned safely to Ghana.

AFP