Mozambique: Mozambique Claims Five of Its Nationals Killed Killed in South Africa 'Xenophobic Attacks'

Mozambique has claimed that five of its nationals were killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa at the weekend, as efforts got under way on Tuesday to repatriate hundreds of others.

The deaths come after approximately 800 Mozambicans were targeted in violence that erupted in the southern city of Mossel Bay on Friday (29 May 2026), according to a statement released on Monday.

Mossel Bay is situated about 380 kilometres east of Cape Town.

The statement specified that "seven Mozambicans died, five as a direct result of the xenophobic attacks and two as a result of a road accident while returning to Mozambique by car."

"Regrettably, seven Mozambican citizens have died, five of them as a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks and the other two as a result of a road accident, when they were travelling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique," the Mozambique government's media office said in a statement late on Monday.

Local police on Tuesday confirmed only two deaths. "It is not true that five people were killed," Western Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said.

"Two Mozambicans lost their lives in the Asla Park informal settlement outside the town on Friday evening, one aged 27 and another aged 43," she said.

South African police also declined to say whether the two died in anti-migrant violence.

Local media, however, gave further details on the incident, reporting that a protest that began in Asla Park, outside Mossel Bay, on Friday had escalated, resulting in several houses being set on fire and hundreds of people displaced.

The Mozambique government said the violence prompted 300 Mozambican nationals to return home by their own means on Saturday.

"The remaining just over 500 have since been sheltered in a safe location in the Western Cape Province, and as of today, 1 June, the process of their repatriation to Mozambique is already under way," it said.

Mossel Bay mayor Dirk Kotze at the weekend voiced "deep concern and dismay at the current xenophobic attacks where people have been murdered, houses burned and families displaced".

South Africa rejects xenophobia claims over anti-migrant protests

The killings are the first to be officially linked to the latest wave of protests against illegal migrants sweeping South Africa.

The country has seen demonstrations against illegal migrants similar to those that have taken place in recent weeks, notably in the financial capital Johannesburg and the east coast city of Durban.

As the continent's most industrialised economy, South Africa has long been a destination f