The fourth evacuation flight arranged to bring Nigerians home from South Africa was delayed after a technical fault was discovered on the aircraft scheduled for the operation.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, said the flight could not depart from Johannesburg after cracks were detected on the cockpit windscreen during safety checks.
In a statement, Ebienfa apologised for the delay, saying, “We have a situation in Johannesburg, South Africa regarding the operation of the 4th evacuation flight. The flight couldn’t take off up till now because they saw cracks on the windscreen in the cockpit. Air Peace will deploy another aircraft to South Africa later today to bring the returnees.”
The delayed flight was expected to evacuate 270 Nigerians from Johannesburg. The Federal Government has so far evacuated at least 859 Nigerians from South Africa following renewed xenophobic attacks targeting foreign nationals, particularly other Africans, amid calls by protest groups for the removal of foreigners from the country.