Nigeria escalates migrant violence crisis to African Union leadership level

Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Amb. Temitope Ajayi, announced Friday in Pretoria that Nigeria intends to bring the recurring xenophobic attacks on African migrants before the African Union at heads of state level, marking a deliberate shift away from bilateral negotiation toward a continental framework.

The decision reflects three decades of frustration. Ajayi cited incidents in 1995, 2008, 2014, 2019, and most recently in 2026, arguing that the pattern demands more than country-to-country diplomacy. “Is that not enough to call for an extra-national solution to that problem? That is why Nigeria is taking the matter to the AU,” he said. Nigeria’s aim, he stressed, is not to publicly censure South Africa but to build a durable African-level response to what he characterized as a fundamentally continental crisis.

Getting there will require careful groundwork. South Africa previously blocked a similar attempt by Ghana to raise xenophobic violence at AU ministerial meetings, which means Nigeria must first build consensus among other affected member states before formally presenting the issue at a summit. Consultations with those countries are planned before any escalation to heads of state.

Meanwhile, the mission in Pretoria is managing an active evacuation operation. Five Air Peace flights sponsored by the Nigerian government have returned 1,490 nationals home. Private organizations and individuals have arranged additional departures, bringing the total facilitated by the mission to approximately 1,699 Nigerians. Ajayi appealed to religious organizations, businesses and philanthropists to support ongoing evacuation efforts as the security situation intensifies.

The threat environment is serious. A group called March and March has called on all foreigners to leave South Africa by September 30, a challenge Ajayi said the mission is not taking lightly. The mission recorded no fewer than ten incidents linked to protests and attacks targeting Nigerians across different regions of South Africa in 2026. Sunnyside in Pretoria and parts of Johannesburg, where large migrant populations live and run businesses, have seen particular vulnerability. Some Nigerians have been killed during encounters with security personnel, though Ajayi cautioned that not all such deaths stem directly from xenophobic violence.

A bilateral framework agreed after a high-level meeting in Abuja in July established five areas of understanding: preventive measures to protect Nigerians, arrest and prosecution of attackers, de-escalation of inflammatory rhetoric by public officials, respect for the rule of law, and cooperation on cases involving Nigerian nationals accused of crimes in South Africa. Nigeria has also proposed an early-warning mechanism for rapid information-sharing and threat prevention between the two governments. Nigeria has completed its signature on the memorandum establishing this mechanism. South Africa has not yet finalized its commitment.

Ajayi welcomed assurances from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that authorities are prepared to arrest and prosecute those responsible for attacks. He said Nigeria does not oppose prosecution of Nigerians engaged in illicit activities, but that indiscriminate attacks and stereotyping must stop. The mission has been engaging Nigerian community leaders to promote responsible conduct and peaceful coexistence, while urging South Africans to distinguish between individual offenders and the broader Nigerian population.

Beneath the security crisis lies a deeper people-to-people problem. Relations between the two governments remain, in Ajayi’s words, “very cordial and excellent,” but negative perceptions of Nigerians persist in parts of South African society. He attributed some of this to generational disconnect: younger South Africans are largely unfamiliar with Nigeria’s historical role as a recognized frontline state during the anti-apartheid struggle, a role that involved material and human resources despite Nigeria’s geographical distance from the conflict. The mission is pursuing cultural exchanges involving traditional rulers and professionals, promoting Nigerian films and cultural products, and considering a summit of Nigerian professionals in South Africa to demonstrate their contributions to the economy.

Economic ties between the two countries remain substantial, though Ajayi called for removal of regulatory barriers to expand trade and investment. The Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission is the principal mechanism for bilateral cooperation; its last meeting took place in Cape Town in December 2024. Ajayi expressed hope for the next session to be held in Abuja before the end of 2026. Whether that meeting happens on schedule, and whether South Africa signs onto the early-warning mechanism before the September 30 deadline passes, will be the clearest near-term test of how much the bilateral framework actually delivers.