{"id":33672,"date":"2026-05-04T16:43:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33672"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:43:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:43:27","slug":"at-least-130-nigerians-seek-repatriation-from-sa-after-protests-abuja","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/at-least-130-nigerians-seek-repatriation-from-sa-after-protests-abuja\/","title":{"rendered":"At least 130 Nigerians seek repatriation from SA after protests: Abuja"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The first to apply to a new scheme to repatriate citizens launched by Nigeria&#8217;s government, Odumegwu-Ojukwu said on Sunday, amid fears that confrontations in SA could escalate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Protesters held rallies in Pretoria and Johannesburg \u200blast week, demanding tougher action against illegal immigration, saying undocumented foreign nationals were putting pressure on jobs, security \u200band public services.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Campaigners for migrant rights say foreigners \u200bhave long been scapegoated in SA for its economic \u200cwoes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SA last month promised to crack down on anyone carrying out xenophobic attacks after Ghana and other African countries reported that their nationals had \u200bfaced violence \u200band discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More \u2060protests were planned on May 4 and May 8 and Nigeria \u200bwould be watching developments closely, the \u200bgovernment \u2060said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It had already summoned SA\u2019s High Commissioner in Abuja over the situation, and its diplomatic \u2060missions \u200bin SA are working \u200bwith local authorities to reduce risks to Nigerians, the Minister \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33673,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-33672","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"At least 130 Nigerian citizens in South Africa (SA) have asked their \u200bgovernment to fly them home after \u200ca protest there targeting foreigners, Nigeria\u2019s Foreign Minister, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said.","published_date":"","news_description":"At least 130 Nigerian citizens in South Africa (SA) have asked their \u200bgovernment to fly them home after \u200ca protest there targeting foreigners, Nigeria\u2019s Foreign Minister, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33674,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33672\/revisions\/33674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}