South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged African countries to work together on migration, as his government faces mounting pressure over attacks on foreign nationals. Speaking Monday before the Pan-African Parliament in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said migration is a shared continental challenge no single country can solve alone.

"As African countries, we have to acknowledge and address the conditions that drive migration in the first place," he said, calling for cooperation on issues like conflict, instability, governance failures, poverty and social discord. He warned that poorly managed cross-border movement could threaten regional security and social cohesion.

His remarks follow weeks of anti-migrant protests in South Africa, where groups have blamed undocumented migrants for rising crime, unemployment and strain on public services. According to an AFP tally based on figures from repatriating governments, more than 160,000 foreign nationals have left South Africa over the past two months, in one of the country's largest recent migrant exoduses — with Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi among the countries helping repatriate their citizens. At least four migrants have been killed in the violence, though some foreign governments say the toll is higher.

Calling the attacks "sad and abhorrent," Ramaphosa said South Africa "deeply regret[s] and mourn[s]" the lives lost, and said his government has "taken a firm stand against hatred for people from other countries, xenophobia or Afrophobia." Ghana, among the most vocal critics of the violence, has called for an African Union debate on the matter, and two Ghanaian citizens have separately petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate what they describe as repeated xenophobic attacks — a move Pretoria has dismissed as "opportunistic."

While South Africa has seen recurring xenophobic violence over the past two decades, officials note this is the first time multiple African governments have simultaneously organized coordinated voluntary repatriations for thousands of their citizens at once.