FG to evacuate more Nigerians from Ukraine under humanitarian corridor – Onyeama

Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama says plans are under way by the Federal Government to evacuate more Nigerians trapped in Ukraine under the humanitarian corridor.

This is as Russia on Monday announced the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow the evacuation of civilians from several Ukrainian cities experiencing heavy fighting, including the capital Kyiv and Sumy.

Onyeama disclosed this via his verified twitter handle @GeoffreyOnyeama.

He appreciated his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba for granting the request of the Nigerian government for evacuation.

“Deep gratitude to @DmytroKuleba, Foreign Minister of Ukraine for approval given as promised, to establish humanitarian corridor.

“And authorise evacuation of Nigerian students from Sumy starting tomorrow.

“The big challenges is procuring buses. We are doing everything to make it happen. Great commitment by Nigerian Ambassador, to Ukraine, Shina Alege,” Onyeama twitted.

Our correspondent reports that the federal government has so far evacuated 807 Nigerians from Ukraine.

It was reported that the first batch of 450 Nigerians stranded in Ukraine arrived aboard Max Air flight 747 at 7:10 a.m., on Friday through Romania.

The second batch came aboard Air Peace Boeing 777-300 flight (APK7534) and arrived in Abuja with 183 passengers including kids through Warsaw.

The third batch of 174 evacuees arrived at 11.50 p.m. on Friday through Hungary.

The Federal Government approved the release of 8.5 million dollars on Wednesday for the immediate evacuation of at least 5,000 Nigerians fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict zone to Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

On Feb. 28, the Federal Government said Nigeria’s diplomatic mission had received 256 citizens from Ukraine at Bucharest, Hungary, Poland and Romania following the invasion.