Nigerian members of parliament will visit South Africa in efforts to resolve reported xenophobic attacks targeted at citizens of the West African nation, Nigeria's Senate said on Tuesday.

The Senate stated that a joint ad hoc committee made up of members of the Senate and the National Assembly will be constituted soon.

Fact-finding and dispute resolution will be the committee's primary functions.

The Senate said that the team will formally express Nigeria's displeasure with xenophobic attacks targeted at citizens of the West African country in recent times.

Diplomatic resolution

The Senate has requested South Africa's parliament and foreign affairs ministry to cooperate with the visiting Nigerian lawmakers.

In efforts to prompt the South African government's swift intervention, a Nigerian senator, Adams Oshiomhole, proposed that the operating licences of South African firms in Nigeria, MTN and DSTV, be revoked until the xenophobia concerns are conclusively resolved. The Senate, however, rejected this proposal on procedural grounds.

The Nigerian Senate's president, Godswill Akpabio, said that the West African nation's grievances can only be addressed diplomatically and through official channels, and not via economic vengeance measures.

Senator Aniekan Bassey had brought the matter about xenophobia in South Africa to the senate's attention on Tuesday.

South Africa urges restraint

The senators said Nigerians living and working in South Africa had been subjected to fear, psychological trauma, and indignity due to the recurrent xenophobic attacks.

The South African government has urged restraint in the country, with President Cyril Ramaphosa reminding South Africans about the role other African nations played in helping South Africa defeat apartheid regimes in the pre-independence era. The president spoke on South Africa's Freedom Day on April 27.

So far, the exact number of Nigerians killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa remains unclear, but Nigerian media report that the victims are in the tens in recent years.

Xenophobic incidents have persisted in South Africa amid an unemployment crisis, with more than 30% of South Africans of working age out of jobs.