The Federal Government has concluded arrangements for its final evacuation flight from South Africa, with 315 Nigerians expected to arrive in Lagos early Wednesday following weeks of repatriation efforts prompted by xenophobic violence.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the Air Peace-operated flight would depart Johannesburg at 1:30 a.m. and land at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at approximately 6:30 a.m.
The flight marks the fifth evacuation operation organised by the Federal Government and represents the seventh batch of Nigerians returning from South Africa since the repatriation exercise began.
The evacuation programme was launched in response to renewed xenophobic attacks targeting foreign nationals in South Africa, with more than 1,000 Nigerians registering their interest to return home.
According to the ministry, the previous evacuation flight arrived in Nigeria on July 9 with 282 returnees. That operation increased the total number of Nigerians brought back from South Africa to 1,141 since the first evacuation flight departed on June 11.
With the arrival of the final batch, the government is expected to complete the voluntary repatriation exercise for Nigerians who opted to leave the country following the violence.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has continued to encourage Nigerians still in South Africa to take advantage of the evacuation programme and return home.
Her appeal came amid reports that two more Nigerians had died in South Africa, raising the official death toll linked to the latest wave of xenophobic violence to four.
The Federal Government has maintained that it remains committed to protecting the welfare of Nigerian citizens abroad while continuing diplomatic engagements over the recurring attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa.
