The Federal Government will welcome 83 Nigerians back home on Tuesday night as worries over attacks on foreigners in South Africa grow again.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the returnees will arrive at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at about 8:45pm on August 19, 2026. They will leave Johannesburg’s Oliver Tambo Airport at 3:35pm on South African Airways.
This time, private citizens paid for the flight tickets. The ministry thanked them and called their help a good example of Nigerians supporting each other in times of trouble.
The new evacuation follows the end of a bigger government programme that brought back nearly 1,490 Nigerians from South Africa. That programme was started after a rise in Afrophobic attacks and hostility toward foreigners.
The government said protecting Nigerians abroad remains a top goal under President Bola Tinubu. It added that it will keep working with South Africa to stop discrimination and make sure those behind attacks face justice.
The latest evacuation comes as a South African group, March and March, protested at the SADC Summit in Durban. The group wants all undocumented foreigners out of South Africa by September 30. They also staged protests on June 30.
President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the violence. “We are deeply ashamed that people from other countries have suffered ill-treatment,” he said at the summit.
With more African countries evacuating their citizens, Nigeria says it will not wait for things to get worse.
