Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria, no fewer than 911 foreign nationals were evacuated out of the country on Thursday.
In a single largest evacuation since the COVID-19 crisis started, German and French nationals were evacuated through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos
The evacuees comprising 399 French citizens and 238 Germans were airlifted by Air France and Lufthansa German airlines.
Similarly, Israel evacuated 274 citizens through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA). They were airlifted on an Air Peace Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
Though Nigeria had shut its airports to international traffic, evacuation flights were classified under ‘emergency’ and ‘humanitarian’ operations which were some of the exemptions granted by the Federal Government.
Such exemptions are routed through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to aviation authorities.
The Air France and the Lufthansa aircraft conveying the French and German nationals departed the airport at around 1:00pm, it was learnt.
The US was also expected to evacuate some of its nationals from Lagos but the flight was deferred to Friday and Saturday.
All the evacuees before being flown out of the country went through all airport and security formalities including screening for COVID-19.
Israel had last week commenced the evacuation of its citizens with over 270 evacuated in the first batch aboard an Air Peace aircraft.
On Thursday, the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Shimon Ben-Shoshan, confirmed in a statement that the second batch was evacuated to Tel Aviv, on board Air Peace Boeing 777-300 from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The Ambassador expressed gratitude to the Nigerian government and Air Peace, for granting Israeli request to evacuate her citizens, following the lockdown of the nation’s airspace.
“It is an historic flight being the first time any airline will fly directly to Israel from Nigeria over sixty years of Diplomatic Relationship”
According to the statement, the Executive Secretary of the Christians United for Israel Prayer Outreach Nigeria, CUFI, Rev. Samson Ozovehe believes the gesture done to the Israeli government will further strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations.
