CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Two separate mass shootings in South African townships within hours of each other have left at least 27 people dead, police said on Sunday.
South Africa has struggled with violent crime for years, but recent shooting incidents have shocked a country used to some of the highest homicide rates in the world.
In the first attack, eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar near Johannesburg late on Saturday. The South African Police Service said 17 people were killed at the small venue in Wedela township, southwest of South Africa's biggest city.
The attackers fired at patrons outside the bar before moving inside and continuing to shoot. The victims included 13 men and four women, with at least 15 other people injured, police said.
The gunmen searched some of the patrons and took their mobile phones before escaping in two vehicles. Two cars were set alight outside the bar during the shooting.
Around four hours later, 10 people were killed and 11 wounded in a shooting at a store linked to what police described as an entertainment venue in Lwandle township, near Cape Town, South Africa's second biggest city. Police said they were searching for multiple suspects, though they didn’t give an exact number.
No arrests have been made in either case. Police deployed specialized units to both townships and surrounding areas in the hunt for the gunmen.
The attacks came five days after another mass shooting in a township near Durban killed at least 11 people, including a pregnant woman, when multiple gunmen attacked a house party in KwaMakhutha township. Police have not reported any arrests.
South Africa's gun violence problem
Wedela resident Siyabonga Nondabula said there had been shootings in the area in the past involving illegal mining gangs, but none of them targeted so many people.
“Seventeen people and (maybe) even more have died, this has never happened here,” he said. "So I feel very sad and traumatized.”
A high rate of killings is a longstanding problem for Africa's most advanced economy, but the phenomenon of mass shootings is becoming more common, according to experts, with recent killings often being carried out by multiple gunmen.
Gun homicides mostly affect South Africa's poorest communities in townships and informal settlements made up of shacks and small homes on the edges of many big cities. Police have linked some of the recent shootings, including last week's house party killings near Durban, to criminal gangs.
Other recent mass shootings include one in June in a poor neighborhood of Johannesburg that killed 12 people, and two in the space of two weeks in December that left a total of 21 people dead.
Soldiers deployed to help police fight crime
South Africa's violent crime problem prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy soldiers on the streets in March in a yearlong operation to combat crime in some of the country's worst-affected areas. The deployment included high-crime areas around Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as other areas.
Announcing the deployment, Ramaphosa said crime by organized gangs was the biggest threat to South Africa's democracy and economic development. Some critics viewed the use of soldiers on the streets as an admission that police were failing.
Soldiers were deployed Sunday to the scene of the bar shooting in Wedela.
South Africa has on average 60 homicides a day
South Africa recorded 5,427 homicides in the three-months ending June 30, an average of nearly 60 a day, according to police statistics.
Shootings are the most common method of homicide in the country. Police and crime experts have long identified the large number of illegal firearms in circulation as a major problem.
Firearm ownership is legal in South Africa but heavily regulated and subject to strict competency requirements. Estimates from political parties and the country’s national gun owners association suggest that between 2 million and 6 million illegal firearms are in circulation. Those groups say the weapons are used in the vast majority of gun homicides.
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