It was a happy but sober moment for Nigerians in Ukraine as the first batch of those stranded in the Russian-Ukraine war has arrived in Abuja on Friday morning.
They arrived from Romania aboard Max Air.
Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri, who confirmed their arrival, had tweeted: “First batch of Nigerians from #Ukraine arrived at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja from Romania at 7:10 am.”
The Nigerians citizens s had fled Ukraine amid a Russian invasion have reportedly arrived in the country on Friday morning.
The first batch touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Preparatory to their arrival, jets from Nigerian airlines, Max Air and Air Peace, had arrived in Poland and Romania as of Thursday for the evacuation.
Air Peace deployed its aircraft in Warsaw, the Polish capital while Max Air is in Romania.
About 5,000 Nigerians are said to be eligible for evacuation.
The flight from Poland was delayed on Thursday due to arrangements in preparing passengers for the check-in process, a foreign affairs ministry official, Bolaji Akinremi, said.
The Polish flight was rescheduled for Friday morning.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said it had approved $8.5m which was immediately released for the evacuation of citizens.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, said the countries where the pickup flights would be headed include – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.
