Fear Amid Hostility in South Africa

That is of little comfort to the immigrants who stayed at the campground this week after the tents were ripped down and the water supply cut off.

As the sun lowered, they gathered under a tree and passed around newspaper clippings.

" 'More Somalis killed,' "said Joel Naluwairo, 26, of Uganda, reading headlines aloud. " 'Warning letters given. Foreigners told to close up shop.' This is eighth of September. Western Cape."

Everyone had stories of being attacked, held up and scorned over the years. Everyone had tales of fleeing in terror from knife-wielding mobs in May.

"They call us Absa Bank, because we keep the money" at home, said Abdullah Abbas, 32, the designated leader of the camp's Somalis, referring to a South African bank. He said he and his partners lost a store worth $40,000 to looters. "It is as if all the people are one voice. One person, he shoots you. All the other people laugh at you."

But the suspicion goes both ways. Yilmashwa Taye, the Ethiopians' leader, said he employed five South Africans at his shop outside Johannesburg. But he never kept them on the payroll for long.

"These guys, they don't want to work. They are planning how they can arrive to steal," said Taye, 38, adding that he fled political persecution in his homeland six years ago. "I don't trust them."

Rage prayed often and offered words of hope to others at the camp, Abbas said. But Rage became stressed by the thought of his hungry family in Somalia. He decided he needed to get back to work in the township, Abbas said.

Abbas had no proof that Rage was killed because he was a foreigner. But he quoted witnesses saying the shooter asked for no money. The people around reportedly just shouted: "Leave this country."