Five Mozambicans were killed in “xenophobic attacks” in South Africa at the weekend, the Mozambican government said, the first deaths linked to protests against illegal migrants sweeping the country.

Around 800 Mozambican nationals were caught up in violence that broke out in the southern coastal city of Mossel Bay on Friday (May 29, 2026), the government press office said in a statement received on Tuesday (June 2, 2026).

“Regrettably, seven Mozambican citizens have died, five of them as a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks and the other two as a result of a road accident, when they were travelling in a private vehicle on their way back to Mozambique,” it said.