DHAKA: The recent xenophobic violence in South Africa against migrant workers has sparked a new diplomatic rift with Nigeria, with the South African government condemning Nigeria's decision to withdraw its envoys from Pretoria.

On Sunday, the South African government released a statement calling Nigeria’s move ‘an unfortunate and regrettable step’ and said the government and a wide range of civic organizations had been ‘decisive and unequivocal’ in condemning the attacks on foreign nationals in the country, reports the Aljazeera.

The statement by South Africa’s Department of International Cooperation, however, goes on to deride the Nigerian government over its inability to rein in the Boko Haram insurgency in the north of its country.

It also points out that South Africa did not blame the Nigerian government for mishandling the aftermath of the collapse of a church building in 2014, which left 84 South Africans dead.

Nigeria’s acting high commissioner in South Africa, Ambassador Martin Cobham, and the consul-general, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke were called home on Saturday to brief the Nigerian parliament about the welfare of Nigerian citizens in South Africa following the anti-immigrant violence in Durban and Johannesburg.

BDST: 1131 HRS, APR 27, 2015
BD/