From today, stranded Nigerian in the war between Ukraine and Russia will begin to land in the country’s airports.
The Federal Government has commenced the evacuation of Nigerians taking temporary refuge in countries bordering war-torn Ukraine.
A statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, and made available on Wednesday disclosed that Chattered flights will depart on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 to pick up Nigerian evacuees back home.
The foreign ministry listed Air Peace and Max Air as the airlines which will embark on the evacuation trips.
The statement read, “Furtherance to our efforts to evacuate Nigerians from the neighboring 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: Hungary (650 persons), Poland (350 persons), Romania (940 persons) and Slovakia (150 persons).
“The capacity and route of the airlines are as follows: Max Air to Romania 560 persons, Airpeace to Poland 364 persons and Airpeace to Hungary 360 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.
Meanwhile, the federal government has approved $8.5 million to evacuate 5000 Nigerians from Ukraine.
The affected Nigerian citizens are currently taking refuge in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, Zubairu Dada, alongside the Humanitarian Minister, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, made this known to State House correspondents at the end of the virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Dada disclosed that the approval came after a joint memo presented to the Council by both the ministries of foreign affairs and Humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development.
He stated that Air Peace and Max Air airlines had been contracted to provide three aircrafts and run as many shifts as possible to facilitate the evacuation.
The minister said those to be evacuated include 940 from Romania, 150 from Slovakia and 350 from Poland who had registered for evacuation.
Dada spoke on the approved amount: “The ministry of humanitarian affairs wrote a memo to the president seeking for funding to enable us conduct this exercise.
”The memo was in the tune of $8.5 million which Mr. President has graciously approved.
”That provision entails arrangement to evacuate not less than 5,000 Nigerians .
“Whatever happens, you can rest assured we are going to run any number of shifts that it will be involved.
”Don’t forget, it will also involve taking care of those Nigerians that may decide not to come back.
”It also includes some assistance for the feeding that may have been done by the missions under whatever arrangements. Even the missions themselves are also in dire situations.
”So, it’s a whole gambit of activities that are involved.”
The minister confirmed that the fund would be released immediately to enable the operations commence today (Wednesday).
He also spoke on the students trapped in Ukrainian cities now in the hands of Russians:
“We want to believe the Russian armed forces will obey the rules of engagement.
”They know the rules about civilians that are caught up in situations such as this. We want to assume they will respect international laws and ensure that no harm comes to them.
“Don’t forget that even our missions in Ukraine has had to be evacuated.
”So if for any reason any Nigerian is left behind, we are very prayerful, we are hopeful that no harm shall come to them once, of course, they are in some shelters or whatever place they are hiding.
“Don’t forget we had also summoned both the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors to our ministry, and we did emphasize the need for their troops to ensure that they do not do anything that will harm the lives of innocent citizens.
“We have seen video clips making the rounds about the alleged treatments that had been meted out to black people who were on queues and in buses and all that.
”All these we have brought to the attention of the ambassadors and we have expressed our displeasure at this development and demanded that they do something about this.”