A united front in Freetown
Ghana and Nigeria have escalated their concern over renewed violence and Afrophobic sentiment in South Africa, using the sidelines of the ECOWAS Mid-Year Summit in Freetown to press for urgent regional and continental intervention. A bilateral meeting between Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, produced a joint statement condemning xenophobia, Afrophobia and violence against fellow Africans as contrary to the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The two ministers agreed to coordinate more closely to protect African migrants and to promote peaceful coexistence, rather than allow isolated criminal acts to be answered with mob justice.
Rule of law, not collective punishment
Central to the ministers’ position is a careful distinction: crimes committed by individuals, migrant or otherwise, must be handled through South Africa’s ordinary justice system, but that principle cannot be stretched to justify mob attacks or blanket punishment of law-abiding African communities.
Nigeria went further at the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council session held in parallel, with Enikanolaiye decrying Afrophobic sentiments and violence in South Africa where citizens of other African states are hounded, and sometimes killed through mob actions, describing the pattern as unacceptable.
He called on the Council to formulate a firm, collectively-agreed position to submit to the African Union, building on a proposal Ghana had already put forward.
Ghana’s earlier diplomatic push
Friday’s statement did not emerge in isolation. Ghana had already formally petitioned the African Union to place xenophobia and Afrophobia on the agenda of its upcoming session in Egypt, with Ablakwa warning at the closing of the 3i Africa Summit in Accra that hostility toward fellow Africans threatens the continent’s integration and economic transformation agenda. Nigeria’s own diplomatic engagement has been similarly direct: Minister of State Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu contacted her South African counterpart to raise Abuja’s concerns after Nigerian nationals were killed amid the unrest, part of a widening pattern of formal complaints to Pretoria that has also drawn in Mozambique.
Pretoria’s response so far
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, has sought to reassure both governments, invoking the principle of ubuntu and insisting that legitimate concerns over illegal migration must not be allowed to curdle into prejudice against fellow Africans. He has proposed working through existing Bi-National Commission mechanisms with Accra and Abuja to address the underlying drivers of migration friction and to build early warning systems capable of flagging tension before it turns violent. Whether that institutional channel proves adequate will depend on whether Pretoria can translate diplomatic reassurance into a visible reduction in mob violence on the ground.
A regional integration test
For West Africa, the episode is as much a test of ECOWAS’s collective voice as it is a bilateral grievance between three countries. With the bloc already managing the fallout from the Alliance of Sahel States’ withdrawal and mounting security threats from JNIM and ISWAP, a coordinated African Union position on the treatment of African migrants in South Africa would signal that continental solidarity still functions even as ECOWAS’s own membership fractures. Ghana and Nigeria’s joint push in Freetown suggests both governments see this as a moment to demonstrate exactly that.
References
Vanguard News, “Nigeria, Ghana agree to tackle Afrophobic protests across Africa.”https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/07/nigeria-ghana-agree-to-tackle-afrophobic-protests-across-africa/
Daily Trust, “Nigeria demands ECOWAS position on xenophobic attacks in South Africa.”https://dailytrust.com/nigeria-demands-ecowas-position-on-xenophobic-attacks-in-south-africa/
Channels Television, “Nigeria, Ghana To Partner On Afrophobic Protests In Africa.”https://www.channelstv.com/2026/07/18/nigeria-ghana-to-partner-on-afrophobic-protests-in-africa/
Graphic Online, “Xenophobia threatens African trade, unity Foreign Minister.”https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ghana-news-xenophobia-threatens-african-trade-unity-foreign-minister.html
Daily Maverick, “Escalating xenophobia in SA sparks diplomatic protests by African nations.”https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-05-04-escalating-xenophobia-in-sa-sparks-diplomatic-protests-by-african-nations/
DIRCO, “South Africa’s response to the request by the Republic of Ghana for a debate at the AU on the Xenophobic Attacks in the Republic of South Africa against African Nationals.”https://dirco.gov.za/south-africas-response-to-the-request-by-the-republic-of-ghana-for-a-debate-at-the-au-on-the-xenophobic-attacks-in-the-republic-of-south-africa-against-african-nationals/
West African Voice Network,“ECOWAS Ministers Meet in Freetown to Address Regional Security Challenges.”https://www.wavn.org/ecowas-ministers-meet-in-freetown-to-address-regional-security-challenges/
