NIGERIA (Abuja) – 1,277 Nigerians based in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been evacuated by the Federal Government of Nigeria, following the ongoing civil war in the country.

This was disclosed to newsmen yesterday by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which also said that the exercise would continue until all Nigerians in the unsettled country were airlifted.

NEMA added that the first batch of the evacuees arrived at the Nnamdi zikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Friday, January 3, while other were evacuated on Saturday and Sunday, and they were received on behalf of the Federal Government by its Director-General, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sani-Sidi said the agency is already making arrangements to contact the families of the evacuees who were discovered to be indigenes of Bauchi, Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Borno, Ekiti,  Anambra, Zamfara, FCT, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Abia, Enugu, Kano, Imo and Kaduna states.

Others were from Sokoto, Kwara, Adamawa, Gombe Nassarawa and Delta.

 A breakdown of the evacuees, comprising mainly children, women, the aged and disabled, indicated that the first batch consisted of 365; second batch, 748; and third, 164.

It would be recalled that a United Nations, UN, report, said over one million people had been displaced from their homes in the clashes between Christian militias and the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group that overthrew President Francois Bozize in March.