Tinubu Calls on African Leaders to Unite Against South Africa Xenophobic Attacks on Nigerians

Nigeria has evacuated 1,490 of its citizens from South Africa in seven batches. President Tinubu is now asking African leaders to say, together and clearly, that this should not be happening.

At the 69th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held on Sunday in Freetown, Sierra Leone, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, called on African leaders to issue a united condemnation of the ongoing attacks on Nigerians and other African nationals in South Africa. He also urged that the matter be formally tabled before the next session of the African Union's Authority of Heads of State.

"Nigeria condemns, in the strongest terms, the recent attacks on its citizens and other Africans in the Republic of South Africa. As already stated by His Excellency, the President of Ghana, ECOWAS should present a united voice in this condemnation and table the matter before the next session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the African Union," Tinubu said through Shettima.

The Tinubu ECOWAS South Africa xenophobic attacks Nigerians 2026 response comes after what has clearly been a serious and sustained crisis for Nigerian nationals in South Africa. Seven evacuation batches. Nearly 1,500 people brought home. The Federal Government has indicated it stands ready to do more if the situation requires it.

These are not abstract diplomatic numbers. Each of those 1,490 evacuated Nigerians is someone who built a life, a business, a livelihood in South Africa, and who has now had to leave under duress. The pattern of xenophobic and Afrophobic attacks in South Africa targeting foreigners from other African countries is a long-running crisis that has repeatedly strained relations between Abuja and Pretoria. Past responses, from both sides, have produced apologies, diplomatic exchanges, and then more attacks.

Tinubu's push for a collective African response through ECOWAS and the AU is a recognition that bilateral diplomacy between Nigeria and South Africa alone has not resolved the underlying problem.

Tinubu made a direct point about the consequences of silence.

His warning that staying quiet would only encourage more intolerance across the continent is strategically sound. When attacks on African nationals in South Africa are met with muted individual responses from affected governments, the message to those carrying out the attacks is that the cost is low. A unified continental denunciation, particularly one coming through the AU machinery, raises that cost diplomatically and creates pressure on South Africa's government to act more decisively internally.

Whether ECOWAS can actually deliver that unified voice is a different question. The organisation has its own internal tensions, and not every member state has the same leverage or the same relationship with Pretoria. But the call itself, made at a heads-of-state session with the backing of Ghana and Nigeria, is a meaningful escalation from previous bilateral complaint-and-response cycles.

Beyond the diplomatic push, Tinubu said Nigeria would continue to defend its citizens while maintaining engagement with the South African government through diplomatic channels. That dual track, protection and dialogue, is the right framework. Evacuation protects the people at immediate risk. Diplomatic pressure addresses the conditions that produce the risk in the first place.

At the same session, Tinubu also reaffirmed Nigeria's support for the newly created ECOWAS Compact for the Future of Regional Integration, describing it as a framework for strengthening cooperation among member states and restoring public confidence in regional institutions. That endorsement signals a continued commitment to ECOWAS at a moment when the organisation has faced significant pressure from political changes in several member countries.