A diplomatic row has erupted between Ghana and South Africa following the killing of a Ghanaian national during anti-migrant protests in Cape Town.

Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it received the news with “profound shock and sadness” after 40-year-old Bashiru Isak was shot dead on Monday, June 30, in the Khayelitsha township, amid demonstrations by South African groups demanding that undocumented foreigners leave the country.

Ghana’s High Commission in Pretoria has since lodged a formal protest with South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation and filed a complaint with the South African Police Service.

The Ghanaian government also requested and oversaw an autopsy on the victim, and is now demanding a full, transparent and expedited investigation leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

South African officials, however, have pushed back on the account linking the killing to the protests. A South African foreign ministry spokesperson described claims tying Isak’s death to the demonstrations as fabricated, while the country’s justice minister accused Ghanaian authorities of continuing to spread false information about developments on irregular migration in South Africa. Police said they had no record of a killing matching the reported circumstances in Khayelitsha, though they confirmed they were investigating a separate killing of another Ghanaian national, 35-year-old Kwabena Boagen, in an extortion-linked incident in Nyanga a day earlier.

The tension comes against the backdrop of escalating anti-migrant unrest across South Africa, where Tuesday, June 30, had been set by anti-migrant groups as an unofficial deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave the country. Police said more than 900 people were arrested during the protests, mostly for immigration-related offences and looting, even as authorities maintained that the demonstrations were largely peaceful. Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria are among the African countries that have moved to repatriate citizens fleeing the tense atmosphere in South Africa, with an estimated 25,000 people having already left.

Ghana has also escalated the matter to the African Union Commission, pressing for continental action on the safety of migrants across the continent.

Photo Credit: Punch Newspaper