Sixth evacuation flight from the United States has departed for Abuja and Lagos with 325 Nigerians on board.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopian Airlines ET. 509 is expected to arrive Abuja at about 1.45pm before landing in Lagos state about three hours later.
The manifest states the passengers include 128 males, 174 females, and 23 infants.
This brings to 1,739 the total number of stranded Nigerians evacuated from the US by the Federal Government so far.
The flight schedule states that the Ethiopian Airlines plane will fly directly to Abuja, and then proceed to Lagos state.
As with the previous flights, all the evacuates were subjected to the Federal Government’s COVID-19 safety requirements before boarding.
These include temperature checks and presentation of negative coronavirus test results, among others.
A statement from the ministry partly reads;
325 Nigerians arrives Abuja and Lagos from USA 6th Evacuation flight with Ethiopian Airlines ET. 509 on Saturday 8th August 2020 from Newark New Jersey.
The flight departed on Friday 7th August 2020 by 21:45hrs and estimated to arrive Abuja by 13:45hrs and Lagos by 16:30hours on Saturday 8th August.
The flight manifest includes: 128 Male, 174 female and 23 infants, with a total of 101 passengers for Abuja and 224 for Lagos.
This brings to about 9,000 the number of Nigerians evacuated from different parts of the world since the global lockdown occassioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
