South Africa Dismisses Ghana’s ICC Bid as “Opportunistic” as 160,000 Migrants Flee
More than 160,000 immigrants have fled South Africa after months of violent anti-foreigner raids, and the government has rejected a Ghanaian petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as “opportunistic,” insisting its own courts can handle the crisis.
A wave of anti-immigrant violence has swept South Africa, driven by a group called the March and March movement, which has gone door-to-door demanding that undocumented foreigners leave the country [203945]. The raids have forced more than 160,000 people to flee, as the nation grapples with a 32.7% unemployment rate, one of the highest in the world [203945]. In Thembelihle, an informal settlement south of Johannesburg, Malawian immigrants who had lived peacefully alongside South Africans for years have been targeted. On 29 June, armed men broke into the home of 60-year-old Malawian Eibraheem Hussein, beating him and stealing valuables [204208].
In response to the attacks, two Ghanaian nationals filed a petition at the ICC, asking the court to open a preliminary investigation into whether the violence amounts to crimes against humanity [204276]. The petition came as Ghana’s president repeated his call for the African Union to address the unrest [204276]. But South Africa’s government dismissed the request as “opportunistic,” arguing that the country’s legal system is fully capable of handling the cases and that domestic courts are the proper venue for prosecuting crimes against migrants [204277].
The situation remains tense as the March and March movement continues its campaign, and authorities have not yet commented on the scale of the exodus [203945].