The United States of America yesterday evacuated about 387 of its’ citizens from Lagos to Washington DC aboard the Ethiopian Airlines, just as the Federal Government of Nigeria is currently planning on following suit.
It was gathered that the US had planned on evacuating its’ citizens earlier, but owing to some procedural hitches could not effect it . However, the US finally succeeded in overcoming its initial difficulties.
Also, several other countries have taken similar steps. Countries like France and Canada have earlier taken their citizens out of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
Air France had earlier evacuated Europeans citizens from Nigeria in the same week the federal government closed scheduled passenger flights on international routes on March 23.
Air France and Lufthansa German Airline had also evacuated more Europeans from the country.
Israel and Lebanon have also evacuated their citizens from Nigeria as evacuation has become trendy among countries in response to the pandemic.
After the ban on scheduled international flights, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said the government would allow essential flights, which include aircraft in a state of emergency, overflights, operations related to humanitarian aid, medical and relief flights, alternate aerodrome identified in the flight plan, technical stop where passengers do not disembark, cargo flights and other safety-related operations with authorisation from the Minister of Aviation.
A batch of 140 Lebanese nationals was evacuated through MMIA on Sunday, while the second batch of Europeans, numbering 637, was evacuated last Thursday from Nigeria.