Nigeria’s foreign ministry summoned South Africa’s high commissioner over anti-immigrant attacks in the continent’s second-largest economy, as its Lagos consulate was closed after protests.

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Musiliu Obanikoro spoke to Lulu Mnguni in Abuja, the capital, on April 20 and condemned the “on-going xenophobic attacks against fellow Africans in South Africa,” the Nigerian foreign ministry said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.

Obanikoro called on South Africa’s government to punish the culprits and compensate victims. Mnguni said South Africa was doing “everything humanly possible” to end the violence. South African shut its consulate in Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, on Tuesday until Thursday after unspecified social media comments by Nigerians, George Nesengane, the mission’s first political secretary, said by phone on Wednesday.

South Africa is facing its worst anti-immigrant attacks since 2008 as mainly foreign shop owners, including Nigerians, in townships are driven from their businesses.

•Text courtesy of Bloomberg. Photo shows Obanikoro.