Somalis say it is safer now in Somalia than in South Africa

It is maddening (as so many things are these days!)!  Why does the American media rarely (here Bloomberg News does write about it) mention that the much ballyhooed RAINBOW NATION of South Africa is experiencing xenophobic violence and a murder rate six times higher than the US?

Somalis in recent violence in Pretoria.
Photo: Marc Morris/AP

I do know why, the Left is so invested in the idea of South Africa being run successfully by commie blacks (who would wipe out racism and ethnic nationalism) that it would never allow its media arm to tell the world what a bunch of ‘unwelcoming’ xenophobes they are!   The Mandela mythology is so deep, the truth will rarely be told in the West.

And, of course they have to use the word xenophobe instead of racist because this is black on black violence.

Kind of interesting though that it is Somalis getting the brunt of the hatred there.

Here are some excerpts from a longish piece at Bloomberg News.  (Emphasis mine)

Let me know if you see this article reprinted in say the Washington Post or New York Times!

Ali Omar Mohamed fled Somalia’s civil war two years ago to seek a better life in South Africa. Now after being robbed at gunpoint and seeing scores of his countrymen murdered in xenophobic violence, he’s ready to leave.

Mohammed, a 21-year-old shopkeeper, is part of a growing tide of immigrants who say they prefer returning to a war zone rather than face the hatred and jealousy they are subject to in South Africa where they’re called “the enemy.”

What a coincidence!  Muslims have the money to own the convenience stores there too!

Over the past six months, disputes between Somali shopkeepers and South Africans have deteriorated into looting and burning sprees of dozens of stores in parts of Johannesburg and the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, according to police.

[….]

Somalis and Pakistanis, who’re able to tap their close-knit communities for capital to start businesses, dominate convenience stores known as spaza shops in townships and shantytowns on the outskirts of South Africa’s major cities.

Conspicuous by their distinctive languages and Muslim religion in a mainly Christian country, their business acumen has stoked jealousy among many citizens in South Africa, where one-in-four are unemployed.  [Do I see a little Islamophobia creeping in?—ed]

“There are too many foreigners here, they undercut everyone. Every corner, there is a Somali shop,” Magdalene Thabana, 56, said as she sat on a red plastic stool selling bags of scones across the road from Mohamed’s store. “I don’t have enough money to start a shop.”

Murder rate six times higher than the US!

A wave of xenophobic violence led to about 60 deaths, including some Somalis, and as many as 50,000 people being forced to flee their homes and shops in 2008. Since then, Somalis have been the hardest hit by outbreaks of xenophobic violence, police spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills said in a phone interview.

While South Africa’s murder rate has dropped by more than half to 31.1 per 100,000 people since 1995, it remains six times higher than that of the U.S.   [And, I’m betting they don’t always do their killing with guns!—South Africa has strict gun control laws according to the Washington Post.—ed]

Guess it’s time to go home to Somalia!

In South Africa, the situation for Somalis is deteriorating.

“Somalis are subjected to a high rate of fatalities and loss of livelihoods,” Munyaneza said in an interview. “This is unprecedented. They’re being attacked with impunity. The Somalis are the ones who are the hardest hit amongst the foreigners.”

The US has resettled 716 refugees from South Africa in FY2013, and let me give you a hint—they are not the white South Africans!

As a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, “asylum seekers” should not be passing through South Africa as a conduit to America.   Legitimate asylum seekers/refugees should be asking for asylum there.

We have written a lot about South Africa, click here, for our complete archive.