The Washington Post - 06.09.2019

A12 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 , 2019

BY ISHAAN THAROOR

AND RICK NOACK

cape town, south africa —
Deadly riots in which mostly
Nigerian-owned businesses have
been targeted in Johannesburg
have provoked diplomatic ten-
sions between the two African
countries.
The unrest, driven by renewed
xenophobic sentiments toward
outsiders in Johannesburg, has
left five people dead in South
Africa and led to nearly 200
arrests as people apparently an-
gered over unemployment and
poor living conditions attacked
shops and other property owned
by immigrants from within the
continent.
The violence has spilled over
into Nigeria, where people have
responded by attacking South
African-owned shops.
South Africa on Wednesday
took the unusual step of closing
diplomatic missions in the Ni-
gerian cities of Abuja and Lagos.
“After receiving reports and
threats from some of the Niger-
ians, we decided to temporarily

close while we are assessing the

situation,” said South African

Foreign Ministry spokesman

Lunga Ngqengelele, according to

Agence France-Presse.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi

Osinbajo also canceled his par-

ticipation in the World Economic

Forum’s annual meeting on Afri-

ca, which is taking place in Cape

Town this week and was meant

to be a showcase for South

African President Cyril Rama-

phosa and his administration. It

now risks becoming an embar-

rassment.

Governmental delegations

from Rwanda, Malawi and Con-

go reportedly also pulled out of

attending the forum because of

the xenophobic attacks, though

South African officials denied

that was the reason for their

absence.

The riots in South Africa are

the latest in a recent spate of

violence directed at African mi-

grants in the country this year.

What led to the escalation?

“Africa has similar issues as all

over the world,” Hans-Paul

Bürkner, chairman of the Boston

Consulting Group, said on the

sidelines of the World Economic

Forum. “When the economy stag-

nates, you always have scape-

goats.”

At the meeting in Cape Town,

South Africans were at pains to

repudiate the unrest.

“We are not the people you see

being reported on our television

screens. We are not a nation of

xenophobes,” said Lerato Mbele,

a BBC anchor who chaired the

opening plenary. “We have a

young, disenchanted population

looking for jobs... but in the

main, South Africans relish you

coming to our country.”

Zimbabwean President Emm-

erson Mnangagwa, whose citi-

zens make up the biggest mi-

grant population in South Africa,

urged regional leaders to pro-

mote “tolerance” and “preach

unity and love.”

What has the government

done to control the violence?

Ramaphosa has condemned

the violence.

“South Africa must be a coun-

try where everyone feels safe,”

he said Wednesday.

The country’s finance minis-

ter, Tito Mboweni, later echoed

those comments, saying: “We

welcome all Africans who live in

South Africa.... We are all

Africans.”

But human rights groups

have criticized South African

authorities for not doing

enough to quell the violence.

Dewa Mavhinga, Southern

Africa director for Human

Rights Watch, in a tweet blamed

“ineffective/absent policing

which breeds impunity.”

In a statement Tuesday, the

chairman of the African Union

Commission, Moussa Faki Ma-

hamat, said that he was “en-

couraged by arrests already

made by the South African

authorities.”

But Mahamat called for “fur-

ther immediate steps to protect

the lives of people and their

property, ensure that all perpe-

trators are brought to account

for their acts, and that justice be

done to those who suffered

economic and other losses.”

Criticism of South African

authorities over their handling

of xenophobic attacks this week

coincided with other reasons

for disquiet in Cape Town. After

the gruesome rape and murder

of a female university student

and other recent murder cases,

protesters took to the streets

this week to condemn gender-

based violence in South Africa.

Ramaphosa subsequently cut

short his participation in the

World Economic Forum meet-

ing Thursday and met the pro-

testers, before answering ques-

tions in Parliament about his

government’s plan to deal with

gender-based violence.

Why do such riots keep

happening in South Africa?

Though xenophobia has been

a problem in South Africa for

decades, the first major outbreak

of the recent riots targeting

outsiders in the country oc-

curred in 2008, when 62 were

killed and more than 600

wounded, according to data by

the International Organization

for Migration (IOM). The vio-

lence was brought under control

only after the government de-

ployed the military.

A study commissioned by the

IOM later blamed the “legacy of

institutional discrimination and

generalized mistrust among citi-

zens, police, and the elected

leaders” for the outbreak of

violence, which was “organized

and led by local groups and

individuals in an effort to claim

or consolidate the authority and

power needed to further their

political and economic inter-

ests.”

The researchers also focused

attention on “practices that ex-

clude foreigners from political

participation and justice” and a

“culture of impunity with regard

to public violence in general and

xenophobic violence in particu-

lar,” among other factors.

More than 100,000 people

were estimated to have been

displaced by the riots, but subse-

quent government action fell

short of promised improve-

ments.

After the 2008 riots, “many

left South Africa,” said Amanda

Gouws, a political science pro-

fessor at Stellenbosch Univer-

sity.

“Since then,” she said, the

situation “actually deteriorated,”

citing a reduction of government

services for foreign nationals.

The government, said Gouws,

has “not done enough by far.”

At the World Economic Forum

meeting this week, participants

similarly emphasized that more

action was necessary but did not

limit their criticism to South

Africa.

“We cannot have a continental

free trade agreement and have a

situation where there is black-

on-black violence in South Afri-

ca,” said Oby Ezekwesili, a for-

mer Nigerian politician who co-

founded anti-corruption group

Transparency International.

She argued that the steady

progress of a Pan-African trade

pact — which experts have

dubbed a potential “game chang-

er” for the continent’s economies

— meant little if political leaders

didn’t confront the systemic

problems within their societies.

This week’s forum focused on

the tremendous opportunity

represented by Africa’s burgeon-

ing young population — and the

worrisome risks if governments

and private companies are not

able to provide jobs for them, a

factor that has been cited as

contributing to the recurrence of

violence.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Noack reported from Berlin.

Xenophobic riots in South Africa spark diplomatic tensions with Nigeria

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nigerian shop owners haul a looter to police in Johannesburg on Monday. Deadly unrest linked to

anger over unemployment threatens to embarrass South Africa as it hosts a global economic summit.

BY CAROL MORELLO

AND JOHN HUDSON

Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo said the United States

has “delivered” on its mission to

oust al-Qaeda from Afghanistan

and deter terrorist attacks plot-

ted in the country and neighbor-

ing Pakistan.

The top diplomat’s upbeat

message came ahead of a poten-

tial announcement of a peace

deal between the United States

and the Taliban that has been

tested by repeated Taliban bomb-

ings and is opposed by President

Trump’s national security advis-

er.

In an interview published

Wednesday with the Daily Signal,

a news outlet affiliated with the

conservative Heritage Founda-

tion, Pompeo said American forc-

es engaged in the United States’

longest war have been “success-

ful” in achieving their original

mission.

“If you go back and look at the

days following 9/11, the objec-

tives set out were pretty clear: to

go defeat al-Qaeda, the group

that had launched the attack on

the United States of America

from Afghanistan. And today, al-

Qaeda... doesn’t even amount to

a shadow of its former self in

Afghanistan,” Pompeo told the

Daily Signal.

“We have delivered,” Pompeo

added.

Pompeo’s remarks come amid

an increase in attacks against

NATO service members in recent

days, even as a State Department

envoy announced that the United

States and the Taliban have

reached an agreement “in princi-

ple” in peace negotiations. On

Thursday, two NATO service

members — an American and a

Romanian — were killed in a

suicide car bomb attack in Kabul

at a checkpoint near NATO head-

quarters and the U.S. Embassy,

the coalition said in a statement.

The agreement is expected to

lead to the partial removal of U.S.

troops in exchange for the Tali-

ban renouncing al-Qaeda and

preventing the group from re-

cruiting, fundraising, training

and other activities. But the Is-

lamic State, a Taliban enemy,

could play a complicating role as

it becomes a greater threat in

Afghanistan.

“While it’s true that the U.S.

did achieve its initial goal of

eliminating al-Qaeda sanctuaries

in Afghanistan, it would be pre-

mature to proclaim ‘mission ac-

complished’ on the counterter-

rorism front in Afghanistan,” said

Michael Kugelman, a South Asia

expert at the Wilson Center. “To

be sure, al-Qaeda has been de-

graded in a big way, but it re-

mains resilient, and the newer

threat of ISIS in Afghanistan is

potent,” he said, using another

name for the Islamic State.

The United States invaded Af-

ghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, less

than a month after the terrorist

attacks on the World Trade Cen-

ter in New York and the Penta-

gon. Originally, the military in-

cursion aimed to oust the Taliban

and bring Osama bin Laden and

al-Qaeda to justice. But the war

has stretched on for 18 years

through three U.S. presidencies,

taking the lives of more than

2,300 Americans.

Pompeo paid tribute to the

Americans who have fought in

Afghanistan as well as in Iraq.

“For those who were engaged

in our wars in Iraq or in Afghani-

stan, they took real risk, and they

are to forever be considered spe-

cial by me and by the American

people,” he said.

According to Zalmay Khal-

ilzad, the U.S. special envoy for

Afghanistan, the draft agreement

calls for the withdrawal of U.S.

troops from five bases across

Afghanistan within 135 days of its

signing. But he cautioned that

final approval must come from

Trump.

Last month, Trump said he

plans to draw down the number

of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to

8,600, and “then we make a

determination from there as to

what happens.”

U.S. officials also expect the

agreement to advance talks be-

tween the Taliban and the Afghan

government, and an eventual

cease-fire that would lead to a full

U.S. and NATO withdrawal, pos-

sibly by the end of next year.

Leaders at the State Depart-

ment and the Pentagon have not

opposed Khalilzad’s efforts to

reach a deal but have under-

scored the importance of keeping

a counterterrorism capability in

the country. National security

adviser John Bolton, meanwhile,

has strongly opposed the emerg-

ing deal, and he and his team

have been sidelined from the

policy process out of concerns

they could leak unflattering in-

formation about the agreement.

“Pompeo’s comments appear

to be telegraphing a desire for a

troop withdrawal that would

nonetheless ensure a continued

and robust counterterrorism ca-

pacity,” Kugelman said. “This

would align his position with

Trump’s but put him at odds with

other influentials in the adminis-

tration that may think a with-

drawal isn’t the right move at this

point.”

About 14,000 U.S. troops are in

Afghanistan now.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Pompeo says U.S. ‘delivered’ on

Afghanistan mission as deal looms

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A fire erupts in a protest Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria. South African-owned businesses in Nigeria
have been targeted in retaliation for attacks against foreigners working in South Africa.

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