President Mahama urges AU action on South Africa unrest

Ghana’s President John Mahama has reiterated his call for the African Union to address anti-immigrant unrest in South Africa, which he said risked undermining African solidarity.

Mahama appealed after meeting AU Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf in Accra on Wednesday. Youssouf acknowledged the “urgent need” to table the issue for discussion at the bloc’s next summit.

“Placing this on the AU agenda gives South Africa a formal, constructive platform to share its perspective, and together, as a continent, work toward a lasting solution,” Mahama said in a social media post on Thursday.

Two Ghanaians, Ahmed Abubakari and Patrick Appiah, have petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate “repeated xenophobic attacks” in South Africa. South Africa dismissed the petition as “opportunistic.”

The violence has seen more than 160,000 foreign nationals leave South Africa in recent weeks, and at least 13 people have been killed.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola visited Ghana earlier this week to address criticism. He said both sides agreed that irregular migration should be dealt with “in a human way and not through people taking the law into their own hands.”

A summit of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS at the weekend backed Ghana’s push for an AU debate. Global conflict tracker ACLED said more than 30% of demonstrations in July turned violent.

SOURCE: AFP