The numbers don't add up, but the fear is the same. Mozambique says five of its people were killed in South Africa at the weekend, South African police say it's two.

Here's the latest, based on reporting by cbinewstv:

It all flared up on Friday night in Mossel Bay, a coastal town about 380 kilometres east of Cape Town. Mozambique's government media office put out a statement late Monday saying seven of its nationals had died in total, five, it claims, "as a direct consequence of the xenophobic attacks", and two more in a road accident while they were travelling back home in a private vehicle.

South African police are pushing back on that figure. Western Cape spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa told AFP on Tuesday: "It is not true that five people were killed." She confirmed two Mozambican men, aged 27 and 43, died in the Asla Park informal settlement on Friday evening, but wouldn't say whether it was linked to anti-migrant violence.

This is the first time deaths have been officially linked to the fresh wave of protests against undocumented migrants sweeping the country.

Local media say what started as a protest in Asla Park quickly escalated – houses were torched, hundreds were displaced. Mossel Bay mayor Dirk Kotze said at the weekend he was voicing "deep concern and dismay at the current xenophobic attacks where people have been murdered, houses burned and families displaced".

The fallout is already huge. Mozambique says about 300 of its nationals made their own way home on Saturday, and just over 500 others are now being sheltered at a safe site in the Western Cape. Their repatriation started on 1 June.

This isn't happening in isolation. South Africa, the continent's most industrialised economy and a long-time magnet for African labour, both legal and undocumented, has seen this before. The 2008 riots left 62 people dead, with further outbreaks in 2015 and 2016.

The current tension has been building for months, and it's getting political ahead of November's local government elections. One citizen-led group has given what it calls a June 30 "order" for illegal migrants to leave, with reports of people going door-to-door checking documents and forcing foreign-run spaza shops to close. The authorities have criticised the action and say it has no official backing.

Other countries are already acting. Ghana flew out 300 citizens last week. Last month, several hundred people from the DRC, Rwanda and Somalia sought protection in Durban after being told to leave by month-end. Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Lesotho and Zimbabwe have all urged their citizens in South Africa to stay vigilant.

Mozambique's government is warning the situation is volatile and could get worse as that June 30 deadline approaches.

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