标签： Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – A surging wave of anti-immigrant hostility and targeted violence has forced thousands of African migrants to flee South Africa, deepening a national crisis that has drawn international condemnation and put the country’s migration policy at the center of regional tensions.

The unrest has unfolded alongside months of organized demonstrations led by anti-immigration groups, which have issued an ultimatum: by June 30, all undocumented migrants must leave the country, and the South African government must crack down on what the groups frame as an out-of-control illegal immigration crisis in Africa’s largest economy. If their demands are not met, the organizations have threatened to launch a national shutdown that could paralyze economic activity across the country. South Africa’s police minister confirmed that security forces are already on high alert ahead of planned major protests scheduled for the deadline date.

Many migrants have fled their communities out of fear of attack, gathering in makeshift shelters near diplomatic missions and other secured areas. Multiple home countries have already begun repatriating their citizens, and have publicly criticized South Africa for allowing a widespread culture of xenophobia to take root.

Anti-immigration protests have roiled major South African cities since March, pushing the migration debate to the top of the country’s political agenda. Without providing any factual evidence, protest leaders have blamed undocumented immigrants for South Africa’s crippling 32% national unemployment rate, failing public services, and rising crime rates. Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation in a televised address aimed at defusing tensions. He argued that many anti-immigration groups are exploiting the issue to advance partisan political goals, noting that “illegal immigration is not the cause of our social and economic difficulties.” Even so, Ramaphosa acknowledged that the government has failed to effectively manage border control, a concession that has done little to cool public anger.

As one of the most economically developed nations on the African continent, South Africa has long drawn migrants from poorer neighboring countries seeking greater economic opportunity and safety. Data from the country’s 2022 national census shows that foreign-born residents make up less than 4% of the total population: roughly 2.4 million people out of 62 million total residents. Critics of the government argue that the official census count excludes large numbers of people residing in the country without formal documentation, a claim that has bolstered anti-immigration groups’ arguments that the crisis is larger than acknowledged.

South Africa is already one of several major global economies grappling with increasingly polarized debate over immigration policy, alongside the United States and European nations. According to the country’s home affairs ministry, over the past two years, South Africa has deported more than 100,000 people found to be residing in the country illegally, and has turned away roughly 500,000 more undocumented people attempting to cross the country’s borders. Anti-immigration groups have cited these high numbers to back up their claims that the migration problem remains unaddressed.

Police have launched multiple investigations into fatal attacks linked to the rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Earlier this month, two Mozambican migrants were killed in anti-immigrant unrest in a small coastal town, where more than 50 homes in a migrant neighborhood were burned to the ground. Last week, a Malawian man was stoned to death during an anti-immigration protest in another region of the country, triggering a second homicide investigation. Multiple other assaults and targeted attacks have been reported across the country.

Xenophobic violence has a long, painful history in South Africa. Migrants from low-income nations including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi often settle in the country’s most impoverished communities, where high levels of native unemployment and public frustration create fertile ground for resentment. In 2008, a nationwide wave of anti-immigrant violence that began in Johannesburg left more than 60 people dead, both South African citizens and foreign migrants. Intermittent outbursts of targeted violence against immigrants have occurred in the decades since.

The United Nations has added its voice to international criticism of South Africa’s response to the crisis. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Guterres is “deeply concerned by reports of xenophobic attacks and acts of harassment and intimidation against migrants and foreign nationals in parts of South Africa.” Multiple African governments, including those of Nigeria, Ghana, and Mozambique, have also issued strong formal rebukes of South Africa over the targeting of their citizens.

As the June 30 deadline approaches, thousands of migrants have already fled the country to seek safety. So far, Nigeria and Ghana have repatriated nearly 2,000 of their citizens on government-funded evacuation flights, with officials confirming more repatriation flights are planned. Zimbabwe and Mozambique have also repatriated smaller groups of their nationals.

Last week, roughly 10,000 Malawian migrants gathered at a temporary shelter in the eastern coastal city of Durban, all waiting to arrange return travel to their home country. More than 8,000 of those migrants have since left South Africa on buses provided by the Malawian government or private sponsors, but hundreds remain stuck in the shelter waiting for departure. South African authorities confirmed they have facilitated the voluntary repatriation of Malawian citizens, though many other migrants have been formally deported for lacking legal residency documentation.

A devastating arson attack at a Kenyan girls’ boarding school that left 16 teenage pupils dead and dozens wounded is moving into the legal phase, with national prosecutors announcing they have approved murder charges for the students implicated in the blaze.

The fatal fire broke out on 28 May at Utumishi Girls’ School, located in Gilgil roughly 120 kilometers northwest of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The inferno swept through the upper floor of a three-story dormitory that was housing 202 students in 135 bunk beds, a layout that quickly turned a contained fire into a mass casualty event. Trapped by an emergency exit that failed to open when the blaze started, the students could only escape through a single narrow doorway, leading to the high death toll. All the victims were between 15 and 18 years old.

Local law enforcement launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the fire. After conducting interviews with surviving students and school staff, and completing a forensic analysis of closed-circuit security camera footage from the campus, eight students were identified as persons of interest. Police allege the group planned and carried out the attack by igniting mattresses close to one of the dormitory’s exits, and all eight were taken into police custody after the incident.

In an official statement released last week, Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) confirmed that after a thorough review of all evidence collected by investigators, the DPP has formally approved murder charges against the implicated students. “The suspects will face sixteen (16) counts of murder arising from the incident,” the statement read. While prosecutors have not confirmed the exact number of students that will be charged, nor an exact timeline for the arraignment, court documents confirm the suspects are scheduled to make their first formal appearance at a Naivasha courtroom on Wednesday. All eight remain in police custody as of Tuesday.

Beyond the immediate case, the ODPP has sounded the alarm over a concerning nationwide uptick in arson attacks and violent incidents at Kenyan learning institutions, warning that any individual found responsible for such violence will face full legal accountability.

Preliminary government assessments have also highlighted critical systemic safety failures at the school that contributed to the high death toll. Kenya’s Education Minister Julius Ogamba confirmed early findings show multiple serious breaches of mandatory safety protocols at Utumishi Girls’ School, including severe overcrowding in the dormitory where the fire broke out and the fatal decision to lock the emergency exit door during occupancy.

This tragedy is not an isolated event for Kenya: the country has grappled with a decades-long pattern of fatal dormitory fires at boarding schools. Just two years ago, a similar dormitory blaze in central Kenya killed at least 21 people. Research into past incidents shows many of these fires have been linked to arson, often carried out by disgruntled students protesting harsh disciplinary rules, poor living conditions, or fee increases. Other fires have been ruled accidental. In most cases with high casualty counts, investigators have pinned the elevated death toll on systemic failures: widespread overcrowding, non-functional emergency exits, blocked escape routes, and locked windows that violate national school safety guidelines.

As the legal process gets underway this week, Kenyan education officials are facing renewed pressure to implement mandatory safety audits across all of the country’s boarding schools to address the long-unresolved risks that have led to repeated mass casualty fires.

As Sudan’s brutal civil war enters its fourth year, a build-up of paramilitary forces around the key central city of El-Obeid has sparked urgent global warnings that the region could face a new wave of mass civilian violence, echoing the catastrophic 2024 attack on El Fasher.

In an official statement, a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the global community’s commitment to preventing a repeat of El Fasher’s atrocities in El-Obeid. Last year, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured El Fasher after a three-day assault, more than 6,000 people were killed. UN investigators have concluded the attack carried all the hallmarks of genocide.

The UN Security Council has formally expressed alarm over confirmed reports of substantial RSF troop and weapons reinforcements deployed across areas surrounding El-Obeid in North Kordofan. The United States, United Kingdom and multiple European nations have also issued joint warnings of sharply escalating risks of large-scale atrocities against the city’s half-million residents.

Strategic analysts who spoke to the Associated Press note that RSF deployments around the city are clear indicators the paramilitary group is preparing a full-scale offensive to retake control of El-Obeid, a critical stronghold that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) broke out from a more than year-long RSF siege in early 2024. The RSF has not issued any immediate response to requests for comment on the troop build-up.

El-Obeid holds unique strategic importance for both warring parties in Sudan’s ongoing conflict. Situated along Sudan’s primary east-west highway that connects outlying regions to the Nile Valley and the capital Khartoum, the city hosts a large military air base and an infantry division, making it a key logistical hub for the SAF’s campaign against the RSF.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, explained that El-Obeid’s significance extends beyond military strategy. “El Obeid is important beyond even the strategic implications because it shows what happens when you have two forces that are highly depleted attempting to gain advantage on the other in high proximity,” he said. If the RSF seizes control of the city, it would open a clear path for the group to threaten Khartoum and Omdurman — territories the SAF retook last year — trigger widespread civilian chaos, and block humanitarian organizations from resuming operations in the capital region, Raymond added.

Unlike the 2024 assault on El Fasher, which followed an 18-month siege and was driven largely by ethnically motivated violence, experts frame a potential El-Obeid offensive as a tactical rather than explicitly genocidal move. Still, Raymond warned that even a tactical takeover would likely lead to widespread reprisal killings of civilians perceived to be allied with the SAF.

Ali Mahmoud Ali, a Sudan researcher for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), noted that while the RSF is capable of cutting off El-Obeid from multiple directions, maintaining a full blockade would require the paramilitary to commit significant manpower, armored vehicles and military equipment that it can ill afford. Even so, if the RSF manages to capture and hold the city, the humanitarian situation “could deteriorate rapidly,” Ali warned.

For months, El-Obeid’s civilian population has already lived under the constant threat of RSF drone strikes, which have destroyed critical civilian infrastructure including power stations, residential neighborhoods, bridges and key supply routes, according to UN documentation. Taghreed al-Rashid, a 35-year-old El-Obeid resident reached by phone, said while she feels some security from the presence of SAF troops, she grows increasingly anxious over targeted attacks on residential areas and public markets. A recent drone strike on a local power plant triggered a citywide water crisis, forcing al-Rashid to pay $5 per barrel of clean water — a crippling expense for most residents.

“Despite everything we’re going through, we’re determined to stay in the city because forced displacement is an even harder struggle,” al-Rashid said.

ACLED data confirms that drone-related fatalities have skyrocketed across the Kordofan region in 2025, with at least 2,670 total deaths (including both combatants and civilians) recorded this year — a 600% increase in drone-related deaths and an 81% increase in drone attacks compared to 2024. Another resident, Magdy Abdou, said he is still able to move to local mosques and markets without immediate risk, but lives in constant fear of future strikes on critical infrastructure. A takeover of El-Obeid would also allow the RSF to launch drone strikes from much closer range, expanding their striking capacity across SAF-held territory.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said ongoing attacks on infrastructure have left El-Obeid’s residents facing severe shortages of food, fuel, clean water, healthcare and transportation. “Many civilians are trapped. Those who are able to flee are doing so. The imminent offensive must be halted, and civilians enabled to safely leave the city,” she said.

Analysts remain divided over the RSF’s likelihood of capturing the city. Raymond argues that the RSF’s fighting capacity has been significantly eroded by sustained SAF defenses and intertribal conflict, leaving the group short on personnel to repel an expected SAF counterattack. However, Ali notes that the RSF has now deployed air defense systems in Abu Zabad, West Kordofan, which could serve as a logistical hub for operations targeting El-Obeid and the nearby city of Dilling, likely intensifying clashes across the region. Since the SAF broke the initial siege last year, the RSF has launched repeated attempts to reimpose a blockade from multiple directions.

The SAF also maintains its own drone capabilities. An anonymous SAF official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media, confirmed that recent SAF drone strikes destroyed an entire RSF battalion and more than 50 armored vehicles in West Kordofan, halting the group’s advance toward North Kordofan and El-Obeid. The official added that the military has developed a coordinated plan to defend El-Obeid’s airspace from incoming RSF drones.

Federico Donelli, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Trieste, noted that the SAF has prioritized the defense of El-Obeid and the critical east-west corridor to the Nile Valley since last year, reflecting the military’s focus on holding key supply and transport routes. “Overall, the SAF appears capable of mounting an organized initial defense, but the key open question is whether it can sustain it against a faster, better-equipped RSF push,” Donelli said.

Three years into Sudan’s brutal civil conflict between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the world is confronting staggering new evidence of human suffering and strategic escalation that has pushed the country into the worst humanitarian crisis on the globe today. A newly released report from the United Nations Human Rights Office has laid bare an alarming, widespread pattern of violence: sexual assault is being systematically deployed as a weapon of war to terrorize civilian populations, at a scale never before documented in the country’s recent history. The UN’s verified data records 546 confirmed incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, affecting at least 838 people across Sudan – 539 women, 284 girls, 8 men and 7 boys. Senior UN officials emphasize these numbers represent only a fraction of the true harm, noting pervasive under-reporting driven by fear and restricted access to unsafe areas has obscured the full scope of the crisis. The report attributes the vast majority of verified cases to RSF fighters and their allied militias, though it also documents allegations of sexual violence committed by army personnel and their allies. “This is a war crime and, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said of the systemic use of sexual violence. Neither the RSF nor the Sudanese army has issued a public response to the latest report, but both groups have consistently denied similar allegations of human rights abuses since the conflict began. Beyond the revelations of sexual violence, the international community is sounding urgent alarms over an imminent threat to the strategic city of el-Obeid, where intelligence indicates the RSF is preparing a full-scale ground offensive to seize control of the key hub. Seven Western nations – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway – have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate end to hostilities in el-Obeid, warning the city of more than half a million residents (including 200,000 internally displaced people who fled violence elsewhere) is on the “precipice of atrocity”. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper outlined the escalating threats facing the city: the RSF has already launched drone strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, blocked critical supply routes, and cut off access to basic necessities including clean water, food and healthcare for hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians. “There are now credible signs of an imminent offensive. This is a critical moment, and the international community must act,” the joint statement read. The Western powers explicitly urged the global community to act to avoid a repeat of the mass atrocities committed last year when RSF forces captured the city of el-Fasher in northern Darfur. A February UN report documented that more than 6,000 people were killed in just three days of fighting after RSF seized control of el-Fasher, and international assessors have concluded the killings bear the “hallmarks of genocide”. For displaced residents trapped in el-Obeid, the impending threat has created a state of perpetual terror. “As displaced people we feel we have come here only to die. We are afraid,” one displaced woman told BBC Arabic’s Sudan Lifeline programme. “We arrived here and this has become our fate. We cannot eat. We cannot drink. Where can we go? Where do we go from here?” Another resident described constant fear of drone attacks, adding, “We are terrified and feel psychologically and physically insecure.” Geopolitically, el-Obeid holds enormous strategic importance for both warring parties: it sits at the boundary between RSF-held territories in western Sudan and army-held regions in the east, and lies within Sudan’s major oil-producing Kordofan region. Analysts widely agree that whichever faction controls el-Obeid and the broader Kordofan region will effectively control Sudan’s national oil supply and a large swathe of the country’s territory. The ongoing civil conflict, which erupted in 2023 after a bitter power-sharing collapse between the army and RSF, has already triggered a humanitarian catastrophe unmatched globally. International aid agencies confirm that more than 11 million Sudanese people have been forced to flee their homes, and 28 million – more than half the country’s population – face acute food insecurity and hunger.