• Thursday, April 25, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Covid-19: Another batch of 268 Nigerian evacuees arrive from China

Geoffrey Onyeama

The Federal Government has disclosed that another batch of Nigerian evacuees arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport from China on Saturday, swelling the number of  Nigerians that have so far returned home from different parts of the world following the the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama made this known on Saturday through his verified Twitter handle @GeoffreyOnyeama, adding that all the evacuees will go on the 14-day quarantine stipulated by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

The Federal Government has continued to evacuate about 4,000 Nigerians that have indicated interest to return home from different parts of the world.  The government has so far repatriated over 1,000 Nigerians stranded in parts of the world. Last Sunday the Minister announced the evacuation of 69 Nigerians from Lebanon.  He said “With the successful and logistic support of the Lebanese Government and the Lebanese community in Nigeria, 50 trafficked Nigerian girls and 19 stranded Nigerians were successfully evacuated from Lebanon.

The Minister also expressed gratitude to the Lebanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Houssam Diad and the Nigerian Ambassador to Lebanon, Goni Zannabura for their efforts to ensure smooth evacuation of the Nigerians.

The government had earlier received 292 evacuees stranded in Saudi Arabia a large number of who were nursing mothers and children and they are all comfortably settled in hotels under the mandatory 14 days of quarantine, according to the minister.

The Government began the repatriation of Nigerians from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (US) in the first, second and third batches of the evacuation respectively.

The government is said to be making more efforts to bring home Nigerians from India, South Africa, France, Sudan among others.