Ukraine: FG begins evacuation of stranded Nigerians, Air Peace to airlift first batch of 364

The Federal Government on Wednesday, commenced the evacuation of stranded Nigerians who fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries, following the conflict between the country and Russia. Amb. Gabriel Aduda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja. Aduda stated that the stranded Nigerians would be evacuated from Romania, Poland and Hungary, via Max Air and Air Peace flights. “Furtherance to our efforts to evacuate Nigerians from neighbouring countries surrounding Ukraine, we can confirm that chattered flights will depart on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, to pick up Nigerian evacuees home. So far, we have the following records of evacuees received by the Nigerian embassies at Hungary: 650 persons, Poland: 350 persons, Romania: 940 persons and Slovakia: 150 persons. The capacity and routes of the airlines are as follow: Max Air to Romania 560 persons, Air Peace to Poland 365 persons and Air Peace to Hungary 360 persons. 

Air Peace is to airlift first batch of 364 stranded Nigerians from Ukraine back to Nigeria on Thursday. Max Air has also been contracted by the federal government to bring back about 2090 stranded Nigerians who have fled from war torn Ukraine to neighbouring countries back to Nigeria. According to the Chief Operating Officer, COO, Air Peace, Mrs Toyin Olajide, the first batch of 364 Nigerians will be brought into Nigeria from Poland on Thursday. Confirming the contractual agreement, the Ministry of Foreign  Affairs Permanent Secretary said about 2090 Nigerians is expected to be airlifted from Hungry, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

The Permanent  Secretary said : “Furtherance to our efforts to evacuate Nigerians from the neighbouring countries surrounding Ukraine, we can confirm that chattered flights will depart on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 to pick up Nigerian evacuees back home. So far, we have the following records of evacuees received by Nigerian embassies at Hungry (650 person), Poland (350 persons), Roman (940 persons) and Slovakia (150 persons). The First batch of evacuees are expected to arrive Nigeria on Thursday, March 3, 2022. Once again, we assure Nigerians that we are working round the clock to see that our citizens are brought back home safely” Recall since the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia, Nigerians, mostly students , had called on the government to evacuate them from the country.