Pretoria - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has instructed his Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, to summon South Africa's High Commissioner to Nigeria and get an explanation on the situation in South Africa.
Onyeama is also instructed to use the occasion "to express Nigeria’s displeasure over the treatment of her citizens, and [get] assurance of the safety of their lives and property".
A statement released by Buhari's special advisor Femi Adesina said the West African leader has noted with deep concern, the attacks on Nigerian citizens and property in South Africa since August.
"President Buhari has also dispatched a Special Envoy to convey to President Cyril Ramaphosa his concerns and also interact with his South African counterpart on the situation.
The Special Envoy is expected to arrive in Pretoria latest Thursday, September 5, 2019," Adesina said.
Earlier, Zambia's high commission in Pretoria cautioned its citizens in South Africa to take extra precautionary measures for their safety in the face of widespread attacks and looting targeting mainly the businesses of foreign nationals.
"Trouble spots or towns should be avoided as well as movement to other places except where it is absolutely necessary," the mission's Naomi Nyawali said in a statement.
She said a Zambian national in Germiston sustained life threatening injuries on Monday after being stabbed in the forehead by a group of unknown people.
"Daniel Lupiya, 33, was attacked on his way home after dropping his niece at one of the schools in the area. According to the information availed to the Zambian mission in Pretoria, Mr. Lupiya was brutally attacked after a group of unknown people greeted him in the local dialect but [he] could not respond," Nyawali said.
"He was then brutally stabbed and left for dead but was rushed to Gemiston Hospital where he was attended to. His condition has been described as stable.
"The assailants motive for his brutal attack has not yet been fully established but it is suspected that he was attacked because of the current wave of violent attacks against foreigners in South Africa."