JEFFREYS BAY, South Africa: Armored vehicles carried around 20 soldiers through a rundown area outside South Africa’s normally calm seaside town of Jeffreys Bay, back up for police after an explosion of anti-migrant violence.
Shots were fired during the unrest at Ocean View last week and three people were wounded, as the world-renowned surfing mecca became a new battleground in a nationwide xenophobic movement that has claimed several lives.
Twenty-three small convenience stores run by foreign shopkeepers — a particular target for the campaign that accuses migrants of taking jobs from locals — were looted.
“I could have died,” said Zelalem Tesfaye, a 28-year-old Ethiopian, recalling how he escaped through a small back window as looters descended on his shop.
The violence erupted after locals had gone house-to-house through the township to demand the expulsion of undocumented foreign nationals.
