The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has received with mixed feelings the announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding the planned evacuation of over 1,000 Nigerians from South Africa following the resurgence of xenophobic attacks against African migrants, including Nigerian citizens.
While we commend the Federal Government for eventually assuming responsibility for the transportation costs of the affected Nigerians and facilitating their safe return home, HURIWA believes that the evacuation exercise, standing alone, is grossly inadequate and fails to address the far-reaching humanitarian, economic, diplomatic, legal and moral dimensions of this recurring tragedy.
Indeed, the proposed evacuation raises more questions than answers.
The first and perhaps most fundamental question is: What becomes of the accumulated wealth, businesses, investments, landed properties, shops, vehicles, equipment, bank deposits and other assets painstakingly acquired by Nigerians who are now being compelled by fear, insecurity and targeted hostility to abandon their lives in South Africa?
Many of these Nigerians did not arrive in South Africa yesterday. They have lived there for years and, in many cases, for decades. They have paid taxes, established businesses, employed workers, contributed to local economies and built lives through hard work and enterprise. If these citizens are now being forced out by organised xenophobic violence, does the Nigerian government have a framework for pursuing restitution, compensation and legal protection for their assets?
Will their losses simply be written off as collateral damage while government celebrates the evacuation of victims from a hostile environment?
HURIWA submits that evacuation without compensation amounts to managing the consequences of injustice while ignoring the injustice itself.
Secondly, what becomes of the thousands of Nigerians who have established families in South Africa?
Many Nigerians are legally married to South African citizens and have children who possess dual heritage and whose identities are intertwined with both countries. These are not merely immigration statistics; they are families, spouses, children and communities.
Has the Nigerian government negotiated safeguards for these mixed-nationality families?
What becomes of the Nigerian husband whose South African wife cannot immediately relocate?
What becomes of the South African spouse whose Nigerian partner is forced to leave?
What happens to children whose education, healthcare, social relationships and future are rooted in South Africa?
What legal and humanitarian mechanisms are being put in place to prevent the fragmentation of families and the emotional trauma that often accompanies forced displacement?
Thirdly, HURIWA is compelled to ask whether Nigeria has fully exhausted the diplomatic mechanisms available through the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the United Nations system and other international human rights platforms before resorting to mass evacuation.
Nigeria is not an insignificant nation on the African continent.
Nigeria played pivotal roles in the liberation struggles of Southern Africa. Nigerian taxpayers contributed enormously to anti-apartheid campaigns. Nigeria sacrificed diplomatic, economic and political resources in support of the freedom and dignity of Black South Africans during the dark years of apartheid.
It is therefore deeply troubling that decades after apartheid, Nigerians and other Africans continue to face violent hostility in a country whose liberation Nigeria vigorously supported.
The question therefore is this: Has Nigeria sufficiently leveraged its historic moral authority and diplomatic influence to compel South Africa to discharge its constitutional and international obligations to protect every lawful resident within its territory regardless of nationality?
The recurring xenophobic attacks in South Africa are not merely criminal incidents. They represent repeated assaults on the ideals of African unity, Pan-African solidarity and human dignity.
Even more disturbing is the perception across Africa that perpetrators of xenophobic violence often act with a sense of impunity because accountability remains weak and consequences are minimal.
HURIWA therefore demands that the Nigerian government publicly disclose the diplomatic measures it has initiated to ensure accountability from South African authorities.
Has Nigeria demanded compensation for victims?
Has Nigeria sought guarantees against future attacks?
Has Nigeria requested the prosecution of perpetrators and organisers of xenophobic violence?
Has Nigeria demanded an independent investigation into allegations that some security institutions have either failed to act decisively or have looked the other way while foreign nationals were targeted?
These are legitimate questions that require immediate answers.
Furthermore, HURIWA believes Nigerians deserve to know whether the Federal Government has considered proportionate economic and diplomatic responses to the persistent victimisation of its citizens.
South African businesses continue to thrive in Nigeria under the protection of Nigerian laws and security institutions. Their investments are protected. Their personnel operate freely. Their commercial interests are safeguarded.
Yet, Nigerian citizens in South Africa continue to live under the recurring shadow of xenophobic violence.
While HURIWA is not advocating reckless retaliation, we insist that diplomacy must be accompanied by consequences where repeated violations occur without meaningful corrective action.
No nation that values its citizens should appear indifferent when those citizens are repeatedly subjected to violence, intimidation and displacement abroad.
Another critical concern is the fate of the more than 1,000 Nigerians expected to return home.
What specific reintegration framework has the Federal Government developed for them?
How many jobs have been created for them?
What financial support packages have been approved?
What business recovery schemes have been established?
What psychological counselling and trauma-support programmes have been designed for victims who may have witnessed violence, lost loved ones, lost businesses or suffered severe emotional distress?
The return of displaced citizens should not mark the end of government responsibility; rather, it should signal the beginning of a comprehensive rehabilitation process.
Anything short of that would amount to transporting victims from one crisis into another.
HURIWA therefore calls for the immediate establishment of a Presidential Task Force on the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Returnee Nigerians from South Africa, comprising relevant ministries, financial institutions, private-sector stakeholders, civil society organisations and diaspora representatives.
Such a body should be mandated to develop emergency economic assistance programmes, access-to-credit facilities, vocational support initiatives, business recovery grants and long-term reintegration strategies.
Finally, HURIWA warns that the recurring pattern of xenophobic violence against Africans in South Africa represents a grave threat to continental integration and the vision of a united Africa.
Africa cannot preach unity while Africans are hunted, intimidated and displaced in fellow African countries because of their nationality.
The dignity, security and rights of every African must be protected wherever they reside on the continent.
The Federal Government of Nigeria must therefore move beyond evacuation and pursue a comprehensive strategy anchored on justice, accountability, compensation, diplomatic firmness, protection of family rights, economic rehabilitation and the defence of the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens. Indeed, these values should incorporated or rather become the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy direction and engraved in the constitution that is being amended.
Nigeria owes its citizens nothing less.
SIGNED:
Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko; National Coordinator Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)
June 8, 2026.
