804 Nigerian evacuees arrive Abuja in 24 hours as trapped Nigerian students sends SOS

In 24 hours, the Nigerian Government has evacuated 804 citizens who escaped war in Ukraine to Romania, Poland, and Hungary in three chartered special flights.

The Federal Government is also providing accommodation and upkeep for those left behind due to the capacity of the aircraft pending when other evacuation flights will return to airlift them.

The evacuees arrived on three flights to Abuja with the first batch of 450 from Romania landing at the private jet terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 7:10 am via Max Air.

The second batch of 180 Nigerians, including four children, arrived on board Air Peace from Poland at 6.55 pm.

The third batch arrived at around midnight from Hungary onboard Air Peace.

The evacuees were mostly students who fled Ukraine to Romania, Hungary, and Poland following Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country.

The arrival of the Nigerians is a welcome relief after initial reports that they and other Africans were being ill-treated and prevented from leaving Ukraine through the Polish border.

Some of the evacuees who spoke to journalists on arrival yesterday appreciated the federal government for its efforts in ensuring they were safely evacuated but narrated the pains they had to go through to get out of Ukraine.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Poland, Christian Ugwu appreciated President Buhari for his swift intervention and release of funds to get all stranded Nigerians in Ukraine back home.

Ugwu said the embassy in Poland was on top of the situation and had successfully coordinated the first batch that was being evacuated already.

The ambassador, however, urged all Nigerians who had made it to Poland to ensure they got ready to be evacuated home rather than remain in Poland.

Amb. Bolaji Akinremi, leader of the evacuation exercise from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained that the March 3 flight was canceled due to a delay in getting all the intending evacuees together from their respective hotels.

Akinremi explained that when they were ready, International law did not allow for the crew members to continue with the journey as they had overshot their duty time.

But Nigerian students trapped in Ukraine say the school is refusing to grant their request and quarantine their safe exit. The two warring countries agreed to a two-day humanitarian corridor for the exit of civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha Plans are also underway for the 3rd round of talks for possible resolution of the conflict this weekend. Nigerian students in Sumy, Ukraine, have again sent out an SOS over their predicament in the war-torn country.

They claimed they are trapped and their lives at risk because taxis and buses are been turned back at the Ukrainian Military checkpoint, they have requested clearance from the school administration or government.