A beauty contest controversy turned Uber into an unlikely battlefield between Nigeria and South Africa

Over the past two days, ride hailing apps Uber and Bolt have become battlegrounds for a conflict between Nigerians and South Africans over a beauty pageant contestant.

Earlier this month, model Chidimma Adetshina pulled out of the Miss South Africa contest following public outcry and xenophobic attacks over her ethnicity. Adetshina, who was born in South Africa, was targeted because her father is Nigerian and her mother has Mozambican roots. Soon after, organizers of a similar contest in Nigeria invited Adetshina to participate in their event, and she accepted.

The incident fueled the long-standing tension between the two countries, which perceive each other as economic competitors — and South Africans found an unlikely medium to vent their rage.

On August 21, Uber and Bolt users in South Africa started booking hoax rides in Nigeria to prank gig workers in the country. Once a booking was confirmed, the customer would send misleading location details to the driver before eventually canceling the ride. Several South Africans posted screenshots of their prank on social media, inciting Nigerians to retaliate.

By the next day, the number of such bookings in both countries was so high that users in Lagos, Cape Town, and Johannesburg took to social media to complain about the sharp increase in fares due to surge pricing . Real customers struggled to find rides, leading Bolt to restrict inter-country ride requests.

“Following a thorough investigation and the implementation of enhanced security measures, we have addressed this issue swiftly by restricting inter-country ride requests,” Yahaya Mohammed, Bolt’s Nigeria country manager, told Rest of World . “Additionally, those responsible for this malicious activity have been identified and held accountable by blocking them from the Bolt app.”

Tope Akinwumi, country manager for Uber in Nigeria, told Rest of World the hoax bookings violate Uber’s community guidelines and the company is investigating the issue.

“[We] encourage any drivers or riders who have been affected to report them through our in-app support channels for further investigation,” Akinwumi said in an email. “As we conduct the investigation, our operations in South Africa and Nigeria remain unaffected.”

Drivers in Nigeria said they are paying the price for a fight that has nothing to do with them.

Mathew Ineh, a Lagos-based Bolt driver, told Rest of World he stopped using the app after getting at least 10 fake bookings. Over and over, the customer would stop responding on the in-app chat after he had driven to the pickup location. “I chatted two of them up to ask them why they were doing this,” Ineh said. “One told me it’s Nigeria versus South Africa. The other lady apologized.”

Ayoade Ibrahim, secretary-general of the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transporters of Nigeria, said gig drivers had reached out to him, complaining about the fake calls.

“Imagine driving kilometers, burning petrol which is already scarce and expensive in Nigeria, to meet customers that don’t exist,” Ibrahim, who is also an adviser for U.K-based gig-work research organization Fairwork, told Rest of World . “Most of them [drivers] from both countries don’t even know there is a pageantry war on social media. Platforms need to address this properly and let people know the impact of such actions on [drivers], who are the most vulnerable stakeholders.”

By the evening of August 22, social media screenshots suggested that Nigerians were responding in kind, and that the feud had extended beyond ride-hailing apps: Some screenshots showed Nigerians placing hoax payment-on-delivery orders at Nandos, a popular South African fast food chain. ▰

Damilare Dosunmu is a reporter for Rest of World covering Africa's tech scene. He is based in Lagos, Nigeria.