Coronavirus: France Evacuates 260 Citizens From Nigeria
On Thursday March 26th 2020, 260 French citizens
were airlifted from Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos state to Paris
following an approval given by the Federal Government to an appeal by the Air
France General Manager in Nigeria, Mr. Michel Colleau.
Air France General Manager Mr. Michel Colleau had asked
for permission for the airline to land in Lagos to evacuate Dutch and
French citizens trapped in Nigeria since after the shutting down of all the
major international airports in Nigeria.
The appeal was approved by the Nigeria Government through
the Ministry of Aviation and had granted the permission for the Air France/KLM
flight to work on the platform of necessary flights.
An Air France aircraft arrived to Nigeria via Cotonou at
2.05pm today, and with all pre-boarding official procedure completed, French citizens
boarded the aircraft which later took off by 3.44 pm Nigerian time. This
evacuation exercise is expected to continue from April 2nd and end April 9th
2020.
Airport General Manager in Lagos, Mrs Victoria
Shinnaba in a statement confirmed that the airline has three special flights to
operate.
She said that:
“We have one or two flights that will be coming in to pick their nationals, KLM is coming in today, there are three flights not only today, we have the approval, their crew are not even coming down, the crew will not come out at all.”
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