The Nigerian Mission in South Africa says some 400 Nigerians have registered to be evacuated from South Africa following the recent wave of xenophobic attacks, allAfrica.com reports quoting the News Agency of Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Consul General in Johannesburg, Godwin Adama, said following the offer from private Nigerian airline Air Peace to airlift those willing to return home, the first batch of Nigerians will be repatriated Wednesday.
“We have more than enough for that aircraft. Over 400 Nigerians have already registered, more are still coming,” he said.
The Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Kabiru Bala, said the mission was also responding to the needs of those who had issues with their documents.
“We are documenting them. Those without travel documents, we shall provide them with Emergency Travel Certificates,” he said.
“There are other governmental procedures that we must observe. Relevant agencies of government in Nigeria must be informed and must be ready to receive the returnees,” he added.
President of the Nigeria Citizens Association South Africa (NICASA), Ben Okoli, said many of his countrymen had lost their means of livelihood and had nothing to fall back on.
“Some lost their passports in their homes and businesses from the fire that gutted it, while others had their documents and properties stolen by the locals,” he said.
NICASA, he said, are also pursuing their demands for compensation as the association has “sufficient evidence” that the attacks were premeditated and orchestrated.
Okoli commended President Muhammadu Buhari for despatching a special envoy to South Africa to convey Abuja’s displeasure over the treatment of its citizens.
He said the move had boosted the morale of the Nigerian community here.
“We have actually regained some strength knowing that our government is backing and supporting us, especially at this time,” said Okoli.
Buhari has also announced that he plans a state visit to South Africa next month.
On Sunday, a crowd of mostly hostel residents disrupted and snubbed a speech in Johannesburg by veteran politician Mangosuthu Buthelezi who was trying to quell tensions following the recent wave of deadly riots and xenophobic attacks.
The large crowd, who walked out of Buthelezi’s address, then marched menacingly through Jeppestown to Braamfontein, and then onto the CBD carrying an assortment of weapons chanting “foreigners must go back to where they came from.”
One person was killed in violence in the Johannesburg city centre, with police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubele confirming that the victim had been stabbed with a sharp object at the corner of Bree and Plein Streets.
Early Monday, EWN reported that a second person had been confirmed dead following the violence that spilled over to the Johannesburg suburb of Malvern.
Joburg Metro Police Department chief David Tembe reportedly said that the latest victim was shot in Malvern Sunday night.
This brings to twelve (two of them foreign nationals) the number of people that have been killed in the violence which erupted last Sunday.
