A fresh batch of 83 Nigerian nationals fleeing xenophobic violence in South Africa is scheduled to arrive in Lagos on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, in a trip funded entirely by private citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.
According to a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, the evacuees are expected to depart Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg at 3:35 p.m. local time and land at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at approximately 8:45 p.m. the same day, flying via South African Airways.
Unlike earlier government-chartered evacuation flights, this latest group’s tickets were sponsored by public-spirited private individuals, a gesture the ministry said it received with gratitude.
The new arrivals follow the formal conclusion of the federal government’s voluntary repatriation programme, which had already brought nearly 1,490 Nigerian citizens home from South Africa amid a surge in Afrophobic attacks and anti-foreigner sentiment there.
That programme’s last government-organized flight touched down in Nigeria in mid-July, when a chartered flight carrying 308 Nigerian nationals and three government officials departed Johannesburg and arrived in Lagos, bringing the total number evacuated to over 1,500. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu had marked that flight as the close of the emergency airlift, thanking diplomats, aviation staff and the airline crews involved.
Wednesday’s flight suggests the need to bring Nigerians home has not fully subsided even after the official programme ended, with private sponsors now stepping in to fill the gap.
In its statement, the ministry appealed to the wider Nigerian community to follow the example set by the private sponsors of this latest flight. It called on the organized private sector, corporate organizations, state governments, and well-meaning Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to contribute similarly, saying such support would strengthen the country’s capacity to respond to consular emergencies.
The ministry also reiterated its commitment to working with the South African government to tackle the underlying causes of the attacks. It said Nigeria would continue pushing for stronger partnerships with host nations to prevent further violence and discrimination against Nigerian citizens abroad, and to ensure perpetrators face consequences.o
The wave of xenophobic violence targeting foreign nationals, including Nigerians, in South Africa has persisted intermittently for years, but escalated significantly through 2026, prompting successive rounds of evacuation flights operated by both the Nigerian government and private airlines such as Air Peace. Earlier flights in the current crisis carried batches ranging from roughly 189 to more than 300 people at a time, as thousands of Nigerians opted to return home rather than remain amid ongoing threats to their safety and livelihoods.
Wednesday’s arrival will bring the cumulative total of returnees well past the 1,500 mark reported in July, underscoring the continuing scale of the exodus even after the government formally wound down its evacuation programme.
