The Federal Government’s fourth Nigeria South Africa repatriation flight landed in Lagos with 282 returnees, bringing the total evacuated to 1,141 as the final flight is scheduled for next week.
The Federal Government’s fourth evacuation flight from South Africa landed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday night, carrying 282 returnees and bringing the total number of Nigerians repatriated since the exercise began on June 11 to 1,141.
The disclosure was made by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa confirming that the fifth and final government-sponsored flight will arrive Nigeria next week.
1,141 Nigerians home as final flight approaches
The Air Peace flight, which arrived late Thursday, is the fourth in a series of government-chartered evacuation operations launched in response to xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa. Over 1,000 Nigerians were said to have indicated interest to return home since the exercise began.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who issued a final documentation call ahead of Thursday’s flight, assured that the federal government would ensure that no citizen who expressed interest in returning home would be left behind.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s call last week came as two more Nigerians were reported dead in South Africa, bringing the official death toll of Nigerian citizens since the xenophobic violence began to four. However, some repatriated Nigerians have alleged that the actual figures are higher than officially acknowledged.
South African rights groups had set an unofficial June 30 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country, but repatriation flights have continued beyond that date as the Nigerian government works to bring home citizens who wish to return.
The arrival of the fourth flight marks the penultimate stage of Nigeria’s most sustained consular evacuation operation in recent memory. When the fifth and final government flight lands next week, it will close a repatriation exercise that has run for over a month, moved 1,141 citizens and operated against the backdrop of a death toll that the government and some returnees continue to view differently.
For Nigerians who remain in South Africa after the final flight departs, the government has offered no indication of further sponsored evacuation support — placing the full weight of that decision on individual citizens navigating a security situation that, as Minister Odumegwu-Ojukwu warned last week, shows no signs of improving.
