Nigerian Government Halts Evacuation in South Africa

The Nigerian Federal Government has halted a fourth evacuation flight of Nigerian citizens trapped in South Africa as a result of the ongoing xenophobic attacks and evacuation notice given to foreigners of African descent in that country.

In an announcement on Wednesday, 8th July 2026, the spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the flight could not depart Johannesburg after engineers discovered cracks on the cockpit windscreen.

“We have a situation in Johannesburg, South Africa regarding the operation of the fourth evacuation flight. The flight couldn’t take off because cracks were discovered on the windscreen in the cockpit. Air Peace will deploy another aircraft to South Africa later today to bring the returnees,” Ebienfa said.

This development came a day after the Nigerian Government said it was in a final phase of its evacuation exercise for Nigerians stranded in South Africa in the face of new Xenophobic attacks against Africans resident in that country.

Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Foreign Affairs Minister, had earlier urged Nigerians who believed their lives were at risk to take advantage of the remaining evacuation flights. She had warned that the security situation in South Africa was anything but improving.

The Minister had told the media that three evacuation operations had been successful, while a fourth one scheduled for Tuesday night with 270 Nigerians was being expected. It is the Tuesday night flight that has now been postponed due to technical faults.

Unfortunately, two Nigerians have been killed in South Africa. One, Emeka Charles Iroegbu, was said to have been killed by Tshwane Metro Police, Pretoria, while Musa Yunana Joe, aka Big Joe, was shot outside his shop in Witbank, Mpumalanga.

The Nigerian government condemned the killings while calling on the South African authorities to investigate and bring the killers to justice.

Source: MRA