South African owned telecommunication giants MTN have decided on Wednesday to shut down all its stores and service centres in Nigeria until further notice due to reprisal attacks coming from Nigerians in three cities.

The attacks comes in the wake of days of xenophobic attacks in South Africa targeting foreign owned business with mostly Nigerian business under attacks.

According to reuters, some MTN shops and service centres in three cities have been attacked prompting Nigeria's biggest telecommunication network to shut down unti further notice.

“The safety and security of our customers, staff and partners is our primary concern,” MTN Nigeria said in a statement.

“MTN condemns any acts of violence, prejudice and xenophobia.”

The latest wave of unrest in South Africa has raised fears of a recurrence of violence in 2015 aimed at foreigners and in which at least seven people were killed. Before that, some 60 people were killed in a wave of unrest around the country in 2008.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday he was urgently sending a special envoy to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure the “safety of (Nigerian citizens’) lives and property”.

Police have yet to pinpoint what triggered the violence, which began on Sunday when protesters armed with makeshift weapons roamed the streets of Pretoria’s business district, pelting shops with rocks and petrol bombs and running off with goods.

Nigeria is MTN’s biggest market, with 58 million users in 2018 and accounts for a third of the South African group’s core profit.