JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
The US government warned
Wednesday of a possible “terrorist” attack during the weekend in the financial
hub of South Africa’s largest city Johannesburg.
Courtesy
It identified the potential
target as Sandton, which is commonly referred to as the richest square mile on
the African continent – an amalgamation of high-end shops and lofty business
office towers and banks.
“The U.S. government has
received information that terrorists may be planning to conduct an attack
targeting large gatherings of people at an unspecified location in the greater
Sandton area of Johannesburg,” the US embassy said on its website.
It said the attack could occur
there on Saturday.
There was no immediate
reaction from the South African authorities contacted by AFP.
Several alerts have been
issued of possible and heightened imminent terrorist attacks on South Africa in
past years, but none have materialised.
South African military are
helping out neighbouring Mozambique fight an Islamist insurgency, where it has
deployed more than 1,000 troops since July last year.
The embassy said it had no
further information on the “timing, method, or target of the potential attack”,
but advised its staff to “avoid crowds of people and other large public
gatherings in the greater Sandton area during the weekend of 29 to 30 October
2022.
“We don’t have anything
further to add than what is already in the alert,” David Feldmann, US Embassy
in Pretoria spokesperson, told AFP.
Johannesburg’s annual gay
pride extravaganza is scheduled to take place in the Sandton area on Saturday,
the first in-person event after a two-year hiatus caused by the Covid pandemic
restrictions.
After the 2016 alert issued by
the US and Britain, the South African government reacted angrily to “attempts
to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and
public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source”. - AFP
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