Regional bloc condemns xenophobic attacks in South Africa

A West African regional bloc on Friday condemned the barbaric, criminal and xenophobic murder of innocent African foreigners in South Africa.

The Chair of the Economic Community of West African States John Dramani Mahama in a statement signed on Friday urged the South African government to act quickly to stop the increasing wave of attacks across its country.

The statement also condemned the individual South Africans involved in the act.

The West African regional bloc described as a pity, the fact that the very people, whose nations sacrificed to help South Africans fight, repel and defeat apartheid, will today be considered aliens and hacked to death in such barbaric manners.

"We welcome the statement of President Jacob Zuma, and his assurances of a peaceful resolution, but we request for an urgent national action plan, backed by a behavioral change campaign against xenophobia in South Africa," said Mahama, who is also the president of Ghana.

At least six people have reportedly been killed in the violence that erupted on March 25, most of them foreigners.

More than 100 foreign-owned shops have been burnt and thousands of foreigners displaced.

Reports say a Ghanaian named Emmanuel Kwesi Quaison has been killed in Durban by local gangs as the attacks in South Africa intensify. Endi