Ghana has announced it will evacuate 300 of its stranded citizens from South Africa as xenophobic violence escalates in the country, sources confirm. The rush operation, overseen by Ghana’s foreign ministry, begins tomorrow. This follows a wave of attacks on foreign-owned shops in Johannesburg and Pretoria, where mobs have looted and torched properties, driving out immigrants.
A senior Ghanaian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evacuees are mostly traders and students who have been sheltering in police stations and community halls since the unrest began. “They are terrified. Some have lost everything,” the diplomat told me. The government has chartered an aircraft to bring them home, docking luggage fees and prioritising families with children.
Uncovered documents from Ghana’s consular office show they have registered over 400 applicants for evacuation, but only 300 seats are available. The rest will have to wait for a second flight, if the situation doesn’t worsen. The Ghana Union in South Africa has accused local authorities of failing to protect foreign nationals.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the attacks, calling them “shameful” and “un-African”. But on the ground, police have been slow to respond. In Alexandra township, where much of the violence has centred, residents told me they feel abandoned by the state. “We are on our own,” said a Ghanaian shopkeeper, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.
The evacuation is a logistical nightmare. Many of the evacuees have lost their passports and travel documents in the chaos. Ghana’s embassy in Pretoria is working around the clock to issue emergency travel certificates, but the queue snakes around the building. A source in the ministry of foreign affairs admits they are overwhelmed. “We have not seen this level of demand since the 2015 xenophobic attacks,” they said.
Political calculations are also at play. Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, facing an election in 2020, cannot afford to seem indifferent to the plight of Ghanaians abroad. The evacuation is as much about domestic optics as it is about humanitarian duty. Critics argue the government should have acted sooner, before the violence reached this pitch.
South Africa’s economy, the most industrialised on the continent, has long relied on immigrant labour from neighbouring countries. But chronic unemployment and inequality have fuelled resentment. Politicians from the ruling African National Congress have made populist noises against foreigners, blaming them for crime and job scarcity. This tacit endorsement has allowed hatred to fester.
For the 300 Ghanaians boarding that flight, this is not the end of their ordeal. They return to a country with its own struggles: high youth unemployment, a stalling economy and a government squeezed by debt. Some may try to go back to South Africa when tensions ease. Others will stay, haunted by what they have seen.
I am told the evacuation flight lands in Accra on Wednesday evening. Families are already gathering at Kotoka International Airport, hoping for a reunion that will be tinged with sorrow. The violence in South Africa is a reminder that in this part of the world, the line between neighbour and enemy is thin. It is drawn with fear and sharpened by the powerful who profit from division.
The money trail here is murky. Who funds the anti-immigrant vigilantes? What businesses gain from the chaos? These are questions that demand answers, but for now, the focus is on getting people out alive. The rest can wait.
