Ghana on Tuesday announced it was evacuating 300 citizens from South Africa, after an upsurge in xenophobic incidents across the country in recent weeks.

In a message posted on X, Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said President John Dramani Mahama had approved the operation.

“These distressed Ghanaians had earlier complied with the Foreign Ministry’s advisory and registered with our High Commission in Pretoria to be rescued following the latest wave of xenophobic attacks,” he wrote.

“The Government of Ghana shall continue to safeguard the welfare of all Ghanaians home and abroad.”

The decision comes after a series of anti-immigrant protests in South Africa, as well as claims of assaults and intimidation against other African nationals.

Nigeria and Ghana have both voiced concern at the situation.

The South African government, however, has rejected all claims of xenophobia.

“South Africans are not xenophobic,” presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told reporters last week.

“What you have is pockets of protest, which is permissible within our constitutional framework.”

Magwenya said Africa needs to address conflict, instability and cases of “misgovernment” that were behind waves of migration across the continent.

At the end of last month, the government in Accra summoned South Africa’s high commissioner in protest at several xenophobic incidents targeting Ghanaians.

South Africa is Africa’s leading economy and is home to more than three million foreigners or just over five percent of the population.

But unemployment is running at 30 percent, fuelling tensions with migrant workers.

In the worst violence

against immigrants in the last two decades, 62 people were killed in 2008. Violent clashes also erupted in 2015, 2016 and 2019.