Xenophobia Update: Deaths in South Africa as Mobs Target Foreigners

Violence against immigrants in South Africa has killed at least five people since last week in one of the worst outbreak of violence against foreigners in years.

Hundreds of migrants mostly from other African countries had been forced out of their homes, authorities told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday.

Khadija Patel, a South African journalist, told Al Jazeera there have been previous instances of violence against foreigners.

"Hundreds of foreign nationals were displaced in Isipingo [20km south of Durban] late last month, when a group of South Africans attacked foreigners living and working in the area. The victims of that continue to reside in a makeshift camp at a sports ground in Isipingo," Patel said.

"The Isipingo attacks was blamed on a labour dispute at a local wholesaler, and government refused to categorise the violence as xenophobic violence," Patel added.

Most of the recent unrest occurred in and around the coastal city of Durban, where police said two foreigners and three South Africans were killed.

The dead included a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly shot during looting on Monday night and died at a hospital, Jay Naicker, police spokesperson, said.

About 34 people have been arrested for possession of unlicensed firearms and other crimes in the last two days, he said.

"Police are deployed and in high alert in most of the areas where there are foreign nationals," Naicker said in a statement.

Despite the increased police presence, authorities are hard pressed to stop unrest that recalls similar violence in South Africa in 2008 in which about 60 people died.

In January, four people died during a week of looting of foreign-owned shops and other violence in Soweto and other areas of Johannesburg, stores owned by foreigners in Johannesburg are closing for fear of the violence spreading.