Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, disclosed that the Federal Government will begin the evacuation of Nigerians who have fled the war in Ukraine to neighboring countries from Thursday the 3rd of March 2022.

The evacuation which was earlier slated for Monday was suspended so as to enable the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the House of Rep, and the Nigerian foreign missions in Ukraine, Poland, and Russia to total the formalities of moving Nigerians from Ukraine to safe borders.

Minister speaks on evacuation effort.

The minister had earlier briefed the House of Representatives on the evacuation effort. He insisted, “We made Romania the 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 some Nigerians in a place called Sumy close to the Russian border.

I have been in touch with the ambassador. There are about 150 of them who are looking to cross into Russia and we have asked the ambassador in Russia to try and get a permit for them to transit to Russia and hopefully, by Wednesday we will start deploying planes to start bringing the Nigerians,” he added.

However, the minister also stated that it was not the responsibility of the Federal Government to evacuate Nigerians that were stranded abroad because this was not the global practice. He also noted that people who use their own money to travel abroad ought to be able to return home by themselves.

Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, also added that “We must be in a state of readiness at all times. We should have our own planes and necessary funding to respond quickly to such emergencies.”

The war in Ukraine has led to the fleeing of over a million Ukrainians into neighboring countries in the region. Though there are talks between the warring factions to end the war, the intensity and bombardments however are not letting up.