The Federal Government has announced that another 271 Nigerians affected by the recent xenophobic protests in South Africa will arrive in Lagos today (Friday) as the ongoing evacuation exercise continues.
Spokesperson of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the latest batch would bring the government closer to completing the evacuation of Nigerians who voluntarily registered to return home.
The ministry disclosed that a total of 593 Nigerians have already been evacuated from South Africa in previous operations.
It explained that the first batch of 258 evacuees arrived in Lagos on June 11 aboard a special Air Peace flight and were received by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb Sola Enikanolaiye, on behalf of the Federal Government before being handed over to relevant ministries, departments and agencies for documentation and profiling.
The ministry said logistical challenges delayed the second evacuation flight, resulting in some Nigerians being temporarily accommodated at the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, where they were cared for by the mission.
It added that a Nigerian philanthropist voluntarily paid the airfare for 66 of the stranded nationals, who returned to Lagos on June 24, while another 269 evacuees arrived on June 30 through the second government-arranged evacuation flight.
The ministry said three additional evacuation flights would be operated in the coming days to bring home about 700 more Nigerians who had voluntarily registered, been screened and cleared for evacuation.