Nigeria’s junior foreign minister, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, will on Thursday morning receive the first batch of hundreds of Nigerian nationals fleeing recent xenophobic violence in South Africa.
An evacuation flight operated by Air Peace is scheduled to land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at 05:00 local time on 11 June, carrying 268 passengers.
The evacuees will be accompanied from Pretoria by Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Alexander Ajayi, who will formally hand them over to federal authorities.
In a statement, foreign ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said the government had put “comprehensive reception, documentation, and support arrangements” in place to assist the returnees upon arrival.
The ministry also announced that the registration exercise for Nigerians wishing to return home voluntarily has been extended until Sunday, 14 June, to accommodate the high number of citizens seeking to leave.
Officials stated that the emergency evacuation reflects the government’s “citizen-centred foreign policy” and its commitment to ensuring that Nigerians caught in crises abroad are protected.
Xenophobic tensions have periodically flared in South Africa, often targeting migrants from other African nations who are accused of taking local jobs, leading to diplomatic friction between Abuja and Pretoria.
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