Hurricane Maria: Buhari Orders Evacuation Of Nigerian Students From Dominican Island

The Nigerian President Muhamma­du Buhari has ordered the immediate evacu­ation of Nigerian students stranded in Dominican Island as a result of Hur­ricane Maria that battered Caribbean Island.

The president’s directive, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin the process plan of transporting student and assigned a senior official to travel for the purpose of issuing the stranded students with temporary travel certifi­cates.

The affected students are safe pending their eventual evacuation, officials stated.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed the presidential directive.

“The President was deep­ly touched when he learnt that some of them escaped with nothing but the shirts on their backs,” he said.

According to him, the students will be moved to Brazil, where they don’t need visas for their onward evacuation to Nigeria.

Over 200 Nigerian stu­dents attend medical schools in Dominican Is­lands which prepare them to move to the United States and Europe for the comple­tion of their medical de­grees.

At least 10 people were reported killed as Hurricane Maria, ranked a Category 4 storm, raged through the Caribbean including parts of the Dominican Republic with heavy rain and high winds as it passed off its east coast on Thursday.

Hurricane Maria, with sustained winds of up to 250 km per hour (155 miles per hour), hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday, making it the strongest storm to hit the U.S. territory in nearly 90 years.