The Nigerian government flew 105 distressed citizens home from South Africa on a chartered evacuation flight that landed in Lagos late Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, as the country’s diplomatic mission in Pretoria works through a backlog of nationals still seeking to leave.
The returnees, made up of 82 adults and 23 children, arrived aboard South African Airways Flight SA060 at about 8:30 pm and were received by officials from the foreign ministry, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and the National Emergency Management Agency, according to a statement from ministry spokesperson Oluwafemi Adeniyi.
Thursday’s flight was the 13th consular evacuation the government has organized from South Africa since the exercise began on June 10, bringing the cumulative total of Nigerians evacuated to 1,821. Of those, 1,388 had their passage fully funded by the federal government. The Eastern Update understands that most of Thursday’s group, 100 of the 105 returnees, travelled on tickets financed by a $265,854 donation from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, part of a pledge the church made toward evacuating 500 distressed Nigerians. The remaining five were funded through a donation from a private Nigerian citizen.
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The ministry said its mission in Pretoria and consulate in Johannesburg were continuing to process other Nigerians awaiting evacuation, some of whom are undergoing preliminary clearance with South African authorities before they can be flown out. It thanked the RCCG, led by Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, along with other philanthropic groups and individuals who have funded evacuation tickets, and said it remained in active talks with the church and similar organizations to fund further flights.
“The Federal Government remains deeply concerned about persistent xenophobic and Afrophobic attacks,” the ministry said in its statement, pledging to keep deploying diplomatic and consular measures to protect Nigerians resident there.
South Africa’s roughly 30 percent unemployment rate has fed recurring anti-migrant sentiment over recent years, and the evacuation program now moving Nigerians home operates against the backdrop of a broader, organized anti-immigration campaign inside the country. The March and March movement, which has staged nationwide demonstrations calling for undocumented foreigners to leave South Africa, has set September 30 as a new deadline for what it describes as a mass departure of migrants without legal status, following an earlier June 30 deadline that produced weeks of marches, door-to-door searches in townships including Alexandra and Soweto, and more than 900 arrests. Movement leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma addressed a rally in Durban last month outside a regional heads-of-state summit, where she called on African governments to retrieve their citizens.
The Nigerian Union in South Africa issued its own advisory on Saturday urging Nigerians to avoid areas where protests and large gatherings are expected around the September 30 date. NUSA president-general Smart Nwobi asked Nigerians to remain vigilant, keep their immigration documents valid and secured, and stay in contact with family and the union’s leadership. “NUSA urges all Nigerians to remain calm, vigilant and safety-conscious,” Nwobi said.
Nwobi separately cautioned against retaliation, warning that Nigerians should not respond to provocation with violence or take matters into their own hands, saying doing so could put individuals, families and the wider community at greater risk. He drew a distinction between concerns over undocumented migration and the legal status of Nigerians who are properly documented and complying with South African law, and said the union was engaging South Africa’s mission in Nigeria alongside local authorities to encourage a peaceful resolution. He also urged Nigerians to avoid circulating unverified videos or messages capable of stoking panic.
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The June 30 wave of March and March action drew scrutiny after protesters in Johannesburg were seen breaking down doors to search homes for undocumented residents, actions a local community leader involved in the marches later acknowledged had gotten out of hand. Nigeria’s foreign ministry has not said whether it expects a comparable rise in evacuation requests ahead of the September 30 date, though the pace of consular evacuations, now averaging roughly one flight every ten days since June, suggests demand from distressed Nigerians has remained steady through the period.
South Africa hosts more than three million foreign nationals, just over five percent of its population, according to figures cited by protest organizers themselves. Nigeria’s mission in Pretoria said it would continue processing applications from citizens seeking evacuation as clearance with South African authorities is completed.
