Egypt, Lebanon evacuate citizens from Nigeria

More countries yesterday evacuated their nationals from Nigeria amidst fears of possible explosion of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Since March 26 when countries including Israel, Germany, France commenced evacuation of their nationals, over 1000 have so far been evacuated out of the country.

At the weekend, hundreds of American citizens were scheduled to be evacuated but the flight was stalled over flight permit from other countries, leaving the evacuees stranded as they later returned home.

There are indications they might be evacuated either on Monday or Tuesday.

But yesterday 37 Egyptians were evacuated through the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri.

An Air Peace aircraft which did the evacuation mission arrived the airport at 11.27 am and departed 11.56 am to Abuja to pick other Egyptians to Cairo, the country's capital.

Also, yesterday, MEA Airlines evacuated 140 Lebanese from the

Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), while Canada is also scheduled to evacuate some nationals today (Monday).

There are indications that the United Kingdom would soon evacuate many of its nationals as the British High Commission in Nigeria has confirmed that about 4000 of them who are on 'short term' visit had indicated interest in returning home.

Daily Trust reports that many countries are evacuating their nationals despite lower cases of infections compared to the cases in Europe, Middle East and America.