Nigeria started bringing citizens home from South Africa on Thursday after fresh xenophobic attacks targeted African migrants.
President Bola Tinubu ordered the evacuation under the government’s citizen diplomacy policy. The first flight, an Air Peace jet funded by the Federal Government, left Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport with 262 Nigerians and 3 officials onboard. It’s expected to land at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed Airport later today.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said returnees have been traumatized. Reception and support teams from federal agencies are set up to help them before they reunite with families. “Your nation is waiting to embrace you with open arms. Welcome back to the Motherland,” she told the evacuees.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu also disclosed she’s in Addis Ababa working to transfer over 100 Nigerian prisoners from Ethiopia. Four inmates have died there from health issues.
The evacuation follows months of intensified anti-immigrant campaigns in South Africa. Nigerians, along with migrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ethiopia and Somalia, have repeatedly faced violence, business destruction and displacement. Human rights groups say South African authorities have failed to protect foreigners, and police have been accused of profiling and extortion.
With unemployment and infrastructure problems mounting, analysts say political actors in South Africa keep using migrants as scapegoats.
