BREAKING: First batch of Ukraine-based Nigerians arrive Abuja [PHOTOS]

The first batch of Nigerians who fled war-ravaged Ukraine have arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 7:10am on Friday.

POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry had on Wednesday announced that it expects to receive the first batch of evacuees from Ukraine today.

According to the foreign ministry’s statement, over 2,000 Nigerians fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, as of Tuesday night, had been received by Nigerian missions in countries around the area, including Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Hungary.

There are about 5,600 Nigerian students in Ukraine, the Nigerian foreign affairs ministry had confirmed.

Eight days into the war orchestrated by Russia, at least one million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the United Nations (UN) said, warning that “at this rate” the exodus could become “the biggest refugee crisis this century”.

This number is more than two per cent of Ukraine’s 44 million population.