Nigeria seeks compensation and repatriates citizens amid South African xenophobic unrest

Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Alexander Ajayi, said the government is documenting businesses, vehicles and other property left behind by Nigerians who voluntarily returned during anti‑immigration protests, and will approach the South African authorities to seek compensation for those abandoned assets.

At the same time, the Nigerian federal government has organized additional evacuation flights, bringing over 700 more Nigerians home and raising the total repatriated from South Africa to nearly 1,300. The operation, fully funded by the government, follows earlier batches of evacuations after xenophobic attacks targeted foreign nationals, prompting diplomatic tensions between the two countries.