NiDCOM Confirms Active Evacuation Of Nigerians In Iran
The Federal Government has moved to extract Nigerians from Iran as the Middle East crisis deepens, escorting willing citizens across the Armenian border in what officials have described as the safest available route out of the country. The land corridor through Armenia has become the primary channel for evacuation after airspace over the region was effectively shut down following a succession of military strikes.
The Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed the development in a post on her X account on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. She stated that officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Tehran are coordinating the movement of Nigerians who wish to leave and are facilitating their passage into Armenia.
“Willing Nigerians being escorted across the Armenian border by officials of the Nigerian embassy in Iran for safe passage. No Nigerian in Iran has been affected by the war as officials remain at the border to receive all who want to leave,” Dabiri-Erewa wrote.
The evacuation follows a dramatic escalation in the region that began on February 28, 2026, when coordinated military strikes on Iran were carried out by the United States and Israel. The attacks triggered retaliatory missile and drone strikes across parts of the region, raising fears of a broader conflict that could draw in multiple state and non-state actors. Iran subsequently announced the closure of its airspace, effectively cutting off commercial and charter flight options for foreign nationals still inside the country.
The strikes represented a significant rupture in the already strained relationship between Iran and Western powers. For years, tensions had been building around Iran’s nuclear programme, its support for proxy groups across the region, and its deepening military cooperation with Russia. The February 28 strikes marked a crossing of a threshold that analysts had long warned about, transforming what had been a cold confrontation into an active military exchange with unpredictable regional consequences.
Nigeria is not alone in scrambling to account for its nationals inside Iran. Iran hosts a substantial population of African and Asian expatriates, students, traders, and religious pilgrims, many of whom were caught off-guard by the speed with which the situation deteriorated. The Iranian government has historically been a destination for Nigerian Shia Muslims and students attending seminaries and universities in Qom and Tehran, which means the community in question is not a small or incidental one.
The choice of Armenia as the crossing point is geographically logical. Iran and Armenia share a border in the northwestern corner of Iran, in the province of East Azerbaijan. The Norduz border crossing connects the two countries, and Armenia, which maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and is not party to the current conflict, has kept that corridor open. For Nigerians and other foreign nationals unable to fly out, the land route through Armenia offers a relatively stable path to safety, from where onward travel to Nigeria or third countries becomes feasible once air connectivity is restored.
Nigerian Embassy officials stationed at the border are receiving evacuees, according to Dabiri-Erewa, who emphasised that the government’s presence at the crossing point was active and ongoing. The NiDCOM chair also confirmed that no Nigerian in Iran had so far been affected by the hostilities, a reassurance that will carry weight for families in Nigeria anxious about relatives in the country.
The more complex challenge for the Federal Government is restoring a direct air bridge between Iran and Nigeria for those who cannot or do not wish to travel overland. Dabiri-Erewa was direct about the current obstacle. She noted that the airspace remains unsafe for flight operations following further strikes, and that a window that had briefly opened was quickly shut again.
“And as for repatriation flights, the skies are currently unsafe to fly. Luckily, a flight came in from the UAE to Lagos two days ago just before another strike and the closure of the airspace. Once the airspace opens, the multi-agency FG team on crisis and evacuation is on standby. Our prayers are with you and all our people in affected countries,” she said.
The reference to a flight arriving from the UAE to Lagos shortly before another strike illustrates how narrow and unpredictable the operational windows have been. The UAE, which shares the Gulf region with some of the affected airspace, has itself been navigating the fallout of the crisis, though Dubai and Abu Dhabi have so far remained outside the direct theatre of hostilities. The route from the UAE to Lagos represents an indirect evacuation pathway, one that requires Nigerians in Iran to first reach the Gulf states before connecting home.
NiDCOM was established in 2017 under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, with a mandate to engage, coordinate, and mobilise Nigerians in the diaspora for national development, and to serve as a government interface for diaspora welfare matters. The commission has been the lead coordinating body in previous crisis evacuation efforts involving Nigerians abroad, including the Libya evacuation operations that began in 2017 following widely circulated reports of Nigerians being sold into slavery in Libyan detention camps. That operation, conducted in phases, eventually repatriated thousands of stranded Nigerians and drew considerable attention to the structural vulnerabilities of Nigerian migrants in transit countries.
The Iran evacuation presents a different profile. The Nigerians in Iran are not primarily irregular migrants. Many are students, traders with established commercial ties, and members of the Shia Muslim community with long-standing religious and cultural connections to Iran. Their evacuation requires sensitivity and a different logistical approach from that employed in the Libya operations.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the multi-agency crisis response team that Dabiri-Erewa referenced have been activated in such situations before. During the early phase of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, the Nigerian government coordinated the evacuation of Nigerian students trapped in Ukraine, an operation that exposed significant gaps in consular capacity and communication but ultimately resulted in thousands of students being returned home. The current Iran operation appears to be drawing on lessons from that experience, with embassy officials deployed directly to the point of exit rather than waiting for evacuees to navigate their way to a collection point independently.
The full number of Nigerians currently inside Iran has not been publicly stated by the Federal Government or NiDCOM. That figure matters for assessing the scale of the operation and determining whether the current land evacuation corridor is sufficient. Iran has historically been home to a significant but difficult to enumerate Nigerian community, given that some residents entered through religious or student channels that do not always generate comprehensive consular registration.
The government’s call for Nigerians in affected countries to register with Nigerian embassies and missions is a standard protocol in crisis situations, but registration rates among diaspora communities have historically been low, meaning official headcounts often understate the actual number of citizens at risk.