Keta: Some residents in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region have expressed strong displeasure over recent xenophobic attacks targeting foreign nationals, including Ghanaians, in South Africa. They described the violence as a violation of human rights and a betrayal of Pan-African solidarity.
According to Ghana News Agency, community members, traders, students, and opinion leaders condemned the attacks and called on the South African government to take immediate action to protect the lives, property, and dignity of all foreign nationals within its borders. Mr. Jonathan Dogbeda Akli, a businessman in the Municipality, expressed outrage at the recurring nature of the violence and stated that it was troubling that a nation whose liberation from apartheid was supported by Africa was now turning against fellow Africans seeking better opportunities.
Mr. Akli emphasized that the attacks were morally reprehensible and set a dangerous precedent at a time when regional integration and continental unity were being promoted under the African Union's Agenda 2063. He urged the African Union, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Ghana government to take a stronger diplomatic stand against South Africa, warning that silence would only embolden perpetrators and put more African lives at risk.
Madam Akpene Tetteh, a pupil teacher in Keta, called on the Ghana government to use its diplomatic channels to demand stronger protection for Ghanaian nationals in South Africa and suggested a review of bilateral relations considering repeated failures to protect citizens abroad. She appealed to Ghanaians in South Africa to remain vigilant, support one another, and report attacks to the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria, while expressing solidarity with those facing fear, displacement, and trauma as a result of the violence.
Other opinion leaders and elders in Keta have further called on African leaders to speak with one clear voice against xenophobia, stressing that Africa's strength lay in unity and that attacks on fellow Africans undermined the dream of a united and prosperous continent. GNA gathered that the Ghana government, through the Foreign Ministry, has made plans to evacuate some Ghanaian nationals in South Africa to safeguard their lives.