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01 June, 2008
Johannesburg - Police in South Africa on Saturday said the number of people killed in xenophobic attacks that have swept through the country has risen to 62. "This has raised the earlier toll of 56 dead. A total of 670 have been injured," police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said, adding some of those injured had died in hospital.
The Johannesburg-based Saturday Star newspaper reported that a leaked police report showed that at least five people were killed in further attacks on foreigners - mostly African migrants - this week.
The newspaper said police information contradicted information from the government. The police report on developments from Monday to Friday also showed that 41 foreigners were injured and 107 properties had either been looted, attacked or burnt in 86 xenophobic incidents across the country, according to the newspaper.
The attacks by locals on migrants from places such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistani, Indian and Chinese began in Johannesburg's impoverished Alexandra township some three weeks ago.
Hundreds were injured in attacks and rapes and tens of thousands, fearing for their lives, fled to neighbouring countries or emergency shelters.
Parts of Gauteng Province where Johannesburg is located, and the Western Cape, where the city of Cape Town is located, have been declared disaster areas.
Authorities plan to set up special courts in the Western Cape to hear the cases of people charged with harming or threatening foreigners and looting and stealing.
Almost 20,000 foreigners fled their homes in and around Cape Town last week, many seeking shelter in mosques and churches.
About 150 foreigners, meanwhile, returned to their homes in an area north-west of Johannesburg on Saturday following xenophobic attacks, the Sapa news agency reported quoting police.
"We have held several meetings with the community, and they have accepted the foreigners back," police inspector Brian Dlamini said.
Unlike in many of the affected areas, their homes had not been torched.
Tens of thousands of foreigners have returned to their home countries, some with the assistance of their governments, since the attacks began.