By Favour Ulebor
Nigeria and Ghana have pledged closer cooperation to address the growing cases of Afrophobic protests and attacks against African nationals, agreeing to seek the inclusion of the issue on the agenda of the next African Union Summit.
The agreement was contained in a statement issued on Saturday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and signed by its Spokesperson, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, following a bilateral meeting between Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, and Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on the sidelines of the ongoing ECOWAS Mid-Year Summit in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The ministers expressed deep concern over the recent Afrophobic protests and attacks targeting African nationals in South Africa, noting that such incidents undermine African unity, regional integration and the free movement of persons across the continent.
They condemned xenophobia, Afrophobia, intolerance and violence against fellow Africans, stressing that such acts are contrary to the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA.
