The Federal Government; is set to begin the evacuation of Nigerians who have fled the crisis in Ukraine to neighbouring countries from Wednesday, March 2, 2022.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this known in an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Monday, February 28, 2022. The minister said President Muhammadu Buhari approved funds for the airlines to evacuate Nigerians.
When asked when the evacuation would begin, he answered, “Wednesday hopefully… We are in talks with Air Peace and Max Air.”
Onyema said about 8000 Nigerians are in Ukraine 5000 of the total are students.
While briefing the House of Representatives on the evacuation efforts, the minister said over 1000 Nigerians had crossed to Romania from Ukraine.
He said, “We made Romania the country hub, and over a thousand Nigerians have crossed there. Poland has about 250, Budapest in Hungary has a similar number, Slovakia is rising rapidly. It is also around 200. There are Nigerians in a location called Sumy closer to the Russian border.
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“I have been in touch with the ambassador. There are about 150 of them who are looking to cross into Russia. We have asked the ambassador in Russia to try and get a permit for them to transit to Russia. Hopefully, by Wednesday, we will start deploying planes to bring Nigerians home,”
The minister maintained the evacuation of Nigerians stranded in the war region is not the sole responsibility of the government.
He said people who use their money to travel abroad should afford to travel back home by themselves.
