Coronavirus: 292 Nigerians Evacuated From Saudi Arabia

Two hundred and ninety-two Nigerians in Saudi Arabia have been evacuated to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said that the flight arrived at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja late Tuesday. 

The minister said that the bulk of the evacuees were made up of children and nursing mothers and they had been checked into hotels as part of the mandatory 14-day quarantine exercise for returnees, under the supervision of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Geoffrey said, “We received 292 evacuees stranded in Saudi Arabia yesterday. The Saudi Government transported them to Abuja. A large number are nursing mothers and children and they are all comfortably settled in hotels under the mandatory 14 days quarantine."

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The minister also added that Nigerians in France who choose to enter the country through the Republic of Benin can follow that route.

He added, “If they have already bought their tickets and have boarded or about to board the flight, when they get to Cotonou, we will as in the past liaise with our Charge d’Affaires, and look at the capacity available to process them from Cotonou. But there’s certainly no guarantee that they would’ve immediate access to the country until such a time as they can be absorbed."