MTN Nigeria said on Wednesday it will
shut all stores and service centres in the country until further notice
after its facilities in three cities were attacked.
Leakers.ng
reports that facilities were attacked in retaliation after days of riots
in South Africa chiefly targeting foreign-owned, including Nigerian,
businesses.
“The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern,” MTN Nigeria said in a statement.
“MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia.”
The
latest wave of unrest in South Africa has raised fears of a recurrence
of violence in 2015 aimed at foreigners and in which at least seven
people were killed. Before that, some 60 people were killed in a wave of
unrest around the country in 2008.
President Muhammadu Buhari
said on Tuesday he was urgently sending a special envoy to meet with
President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure the “safety of (Nigerian citizens’)
lives and property”.
Police have yet to pinpoint what triggered
the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift
weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria’s business district, pelting
shops with rocks and petrol bombs and running off with goods.
Nigeria
is MTN’s biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018 and accounts for
a third of the South African group’s core profit.
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