The Nigerian Government has announced that it will commence evacuation of Nigerians fleeing Ukraine from Wednesday. In a statement, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will be expecting the first batch of evacuees from Ukraine on Thursday. Aduda said, “the chartered flights (Air Peace, Max Air) will depart on Wednesday, March 2, to pick up Nigerian evacuees back home.”
According to Aduda, the Nigerian embassies in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia have received 650, 350, 940, and 150 persons respectively from Ukraine.
He explained that Max Air will lift 560 persons from Romania, while Air Peace will lift 364 persons from Poland and 360 persons from Hungary.
“So far, we have the following records of evacuees received by Nigerian embassies at: Hungary (650 persons), Poland (350 persons), Romania (940 persons) and Slovakia (150 persons),” the statement read in part.
“The capacity and route of the airlines are as follows: Max Air to Romania 560 persons, Air Peace to Poland, 364 persons and Air Peace to Hungary 360 persons”, the Perm Sec added.
Earlier in a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama disclosed that there are over 5,000 Nigerian students in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved $8.5m dollars to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Humanitarian, Disaster Management, and Social Development, towards the evacuation of over 5,000 (registered and unregistered) Nigerians stranded in Ukraine.