Mob attacks, South Africa

In South Africa, angry mobs took to the streets in early May targeting refugees and immigrants from other African nations whom they felt were taking jobs from locals. Fifty people were killed and thousands injured during the violence that started in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra, then spread to other low-income neighborhoods and informal settlements and on to every one of the country’s provinces.

30,000 foreign Africans were driven from their homes, with stores and entire immigrant neighborhoods burned to the ground. Outlying areas are still prone to outbursts of violence.

There were no reports of Americans or other non-African visitors being targeted, and, at press time, the mobs had not had a large effect in Cape Town.