The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navaneetham Pillay, condemned the brutal killing of a Somali family in South Africa, and has urged the government to take action against further xenophobic violence.

Sahrah Omar Farha, her two sons - one of whom was deaf, and her daughter were brutally stabbed and bludgeoned to death in a shop run by Somalis in a village in the Eastern Cape. There have also been initial reports that both Ms. Farha and her daughter were subject to sexual assaults.

This is not the first incident of such brutality against foreigners in South Africa - with much of it aimed at the Somali community.

With the influx of Somalis in to South Africa following the vicious fighting in Mogadishu, tensions have run high in many parts of the country. Culminating in May into several days of attacks on foreigners that left 60 people killed and 15,000 displaced.

While three men have been arrested over the murders Ms Pillay has called for a “concerted and long term effort by authorities to prevent such violence”.