The Nigerian community in South Africa has released a deeply disturbing and heartbreaking revelation — disclosing that 105 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa since 2019 in a devastating toll that lays bare the deadly reality facing Nigerian nationals and other African migrants living in one of the continent’s most economically powerful but socially volatile nations.
The shocking figure, compiled and released by community representatives, represents a damning indictment of the persistent failure of South African authorities to adequately protect foreign nationals — particularly Nigerians — from the waves of xenophobic violence, targeted criminal attacks, and community hostility that have repeatedly erupted across South African cities and townships over the years.
The community’s disclosure reveals that behind every statistic is a Nigerian life violently cut short — fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, entrepreneurs, students, and workers who travelled to South Africa in search of better opportunities, only to meet brutal and senseless deaths far from home, family, and the country of their birth.
Nigerian community leaders stressed that the 105 deaths represent only the documented cases — warning that the actual number of Nigerians who have lost their lives to violence, xenophobic attacks, and targeted criminal operations in South Africa since 2019 could be significantly higher, with many cases going unreported due to fear, lack of legal documentation, or the absence of family members in the country to file complaints.
The revelation comes against the backdrop of the recent arrest of the MK Party Chief Whip and broader concerns about governance and accountability in South Africa — a country where foreign nationals, particularly Africans from other nations, continue to face systemic discrimination, economic targeting, and physical violence despite constitutional protections and international human rights obligations.
Nigerian community representatives are making an urgent and passionate appeal to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, and the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg to take immediate, decisive, and visible action to protect Nigerian nationals in South Africa and demand full accountability from South African authorities for every unsolved killing of a Nigerian citizen.
They are calling on the Nigerian government to formally raise the issue at the African Union, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and in bilateral diplomatic engagements with Pretoria — insisting that the systematic killing of Nigerian nationals in South Africa cannot continue to be treated as a low-priority diplomatic matter while more lives are lost.
The community also called on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration to take concrete, measurable, and sustained steps to prosecute perpetrators of violence against foreign nationals, dismantle the criminal networks that specifically target Nigerian businesses and individuals, and implement community education programmes that challenge the xenophobic attitudes fuelling the violence.
Human rights organisations monitoring the situation warn that the 105 deaths since 2019 represent not just a human tragedy but a fundamental failure of the African brotherhood and Pan-African solidarity that the continent’s founding leaders envisioned — a failure that demands urgent correction at both national and continental levels.
Nigerians across the country and the diaspora have reacted with outrage to the community’s revelation — with many calling on the National Assembly to summon the Minister of Foreign Affairs for an urgent briefing on the government’s concrete plans to protect Nigerian nationals living and working in South Africa.
CDA News Nigeria extends its deepest condolences to the families of all 105 Nigerians killed in South Africa since 2019 — and joins the call for justice, accountability, and urgent government action to ensure that not one more Nigerian life is lost to xenophobic violence on African soil.
All rights reserved ©2026 CDA News Nigeria.
Privacy Policy: Your data is never shared with third parties without explicit consent.
📧 info@cdanews.ng | 📍 348 Ikwerre Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
