Kampala, Uganda – Uganda has established four evacuation centres across South Africa to facilitate the safe return of its citizens caught up in a wave of anti-immigrant violence and protests that has left thousands of foreign nationals in fear across the country.
Uganda’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Amoru, announced the move on Wednesday, saying the mission had spent three days working directly with South African authorities to secure safe passage for Ugandan nationals.
“We have spent the last three days working closely with the government of South Africa to ensure that our nationals have safe passage from wherever they are to the designated evacuation centres,” Amoru said in a video message.
The four centres have been set up in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban — cities where anti-immigrant protests have been most acute in recent weeks. South African immigration officials have been deployed to process evacuees at each location.
Nearly 200 Ugandans had gathered at the Pretoria centre by Wednesday, while more than 300 others had already been cleared in Johannesburg, according to Amoru.
The first group of evacuees was expected to depart from O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday and arrive at Entebbe International Airport later that evening, the envoy said.
Uganda aims to bring between 800 and 1,000 nationals home by Monday. Amoru described those waiting to leave as being in severe distress and said many had urgently sought government assistance.
The evacuation comes as South Africa grapples with a fresh wave of xenophobic unrest that has targeted foreign nationals in several provinces, echoing deadly episodes of anti-immigrant violence that have periodically convulsed the country over the past two decades. Foreign-owned businesses have been looted and destroyed in parts of the country, forcing thousands of migrants from across the African continent into hiding.
Uganda is among several African governments to have activated emergency consular responses in response to the unrest.
