Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has confirmed that an evacuation operation has been successfully completed with a Hungarian citizen among those rescued from Niger.
“The international operation led by the Italian army involved the evacuation of nearly 100 people from Niamey and we managed to arrange a Hungarian citizen to also board the aircraft,” Minister Szijjártó said in a post on Facebook. Initially, all the persons were gathered at the Italian embassy and following the necessary administration they were taken to the airport to board an Italian army aircraft that left early on Wednesday, the foreign minister said. The Hungary-related part of the operation was coordinated by the country’s embassies in Tripoli and Rome which maintained contact with French and Italian authorities and the accredited European Union colleagues, Minister Szijjártó said. The aircraft landed in Rome in the early hours of Wednesday, the minister added. “We are so far not aware of any other Hungarian citizens being there but our embassy in Tripoli continues to monitor the situation and our Consular Service is available 24 hours a day,” he said.