Nigeria begins mass evacuation of stranded nationals from Libya

LAGOS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Thursday it has commenced mass evacuation of citizens stranded in Libya home.

Spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Sani Datti said a government delegation led by Geoffrey Onyema, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, had arrived the North African country to begin the process.

Datti said that the delegation arrived Tripoli, on Wednesday ahead of the actual evacuation operation expected to commence on Friday to transport stranded Nigerians with two indigenous carriers engaged for the exercises.

A total of 5,037 stranded citizens have been identified for evacuation home, he added, noting that the Nigerian mission in Libya is coordinating the identification of the Nigerian migrants with the support of the International Organization for Migration.

He said the evacuation exercises was being led by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by the National Emergency Management Agency with the involvement of all the relevant agencies.

The evacuation exercise was in line with the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari to evacuate all Nigerian nationals stranded in Libya and other countries. Enditem