Nigeria evacuates 500 from Lebanon

[Richard Akindele]

Nigeria has so far evacuated 500 people to safety as hostilities rage on in the Middle East, Nigerian Foreign Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in Abuja on Friday.

Okonjo-Iweala, who addressed a news conference in Abuja, said that the evacuees were moved to Syria, adding that 420 of the evacuees were Nigerians while 80 were Africans from other countries.

According to her, 25 of the 80 others are from Benin republic, while the rest are from Ethiopia, Senegal and other African countries.

She also said that two Nigerians were feared dead in the hostilities that had reportedly claimed more than 250 lives, but added that the report was still being verified.

The minister said Nigeria's ambassador to Lebanon Kabir Sa'id was already arranging tickets for those willing to return to Nigeria.

Okonjo-Iweala, who said that 5,000 Nigerians were in Lebanon, added that 80 others were already waiting to be evacuated from Beirut.

She said that government had put the Nigerian mission in Israel on the alert as there were 5,000 Nigerians in that country.

"The government has remained proactive and shall continue to remain so to ensure that Nigerians are well taken care where ever they may be," she said.

The minister lauded the efforts by Nigerian envoys in the affected countries and assured them of government's readiness to support its mission to protect national interest.

She called for an end to the hostilities and prayed for the best, especially since the UN had stepped into the crisis.

The hostilities between both nationals had heightened since Israel took on Lebanon to press for the release of two soldiers taken by the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for an end to the hostilities, warning of a possible humanitarian catastrophe should the situation persist.

Source: Xinhua