Two jumbo jets are ready to start airlifting Nigerian nationals from Libya and are awaiting permission to fly into the strife-torn north African country, Nigeria’s foreign ministry said Friday.
“Nigeria has arranged two jumbo jets to commence the evacuation of Nigerian citizens stranded in Libya,” it said in a statement.
The Boeing-747 aircrafts are awaiting “diplomatic clearance by the Libyan authorities to facilitate the exercise.”
About 50,000 nationals of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, live in Libya, according to the ministry’s spokesman Damian Agwu.
Fears of a full-scale civil war in Libya have prompted countries across the globe to scramble to charter ferries and planes to get their citizens out.