ECOWAS Parliament’s deputy speaker demands action over killing of West Africans

The Third Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament has issued an urgent call for accountability and protection following the brutal killing of West African citizens in Burkina Faso and escalating xenophobic violence in South Africa. Speaking at the first ordinary session of 2026 in Abuja, Ghanaian delegate Alexander Kwabena Afenyo-Markin invoked Rule 71 of the […]

The Third Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament has issued an urgent call for accountability and protection following the brutal killing of West African citizens in Burkina Faso and escalating xenophobic violence in South Africa.

Speaking at the first ordinary session of 2026 in Abuja, Ghanaian delegate Alexander Kwabena Afenyo-Markin invoked Rule 71 of the Procedure of Compensation to address what he described as “matters of direct and profound importance”, including the killing of West African nationals, persistent violations of free movement rights, and attacks on African citizens in South Africa.

Afenyo-Markin recounted how on February 14, 2026, militants from an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group ambushed a truck carrying 18 Ghanaian tomato traders in northern Burkina Faso, separating the men from the women before shooting them dead and setting the vehicle ablaze with the driver still locked inside.

He further warned that the April 25, 2026, coordinated offensive in Mali—which killed the country’s Defence Minister—had effectively severed the Ghana-Mali trade corridor.

“A regional community that cannot protect its own citizens in transit has not yet earned its name,” he declared.

Turning to South Africa, the Deputy Speaker condemned widespread attacks across KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town and Pretoria, where Ghanaians, Nigerians, Zimbabweans and Ethiopians have been killed, looted and displaced.

While acknowledging President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Freedom Day condemnation of xenophobia, Afenyo-Markin warned that “words delivered from a ceremonial platform do not arrest a single perpetrator” and demanded that South African authorities investigate, charge and prosecute every documented incident without impunity.