KIGALI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- A total of 91 asylum seekers who were evacuated from Libya arrived in Rwanda Thursday night, authorities have said.
The majority of the asylum seekers in the latest group hail from Sudan and Eritrea while others are from Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to a statement by the Rwandan government.
The evacuees arrived through Kigali International Airport, from where they were transported to the Gashora transit center, in eastern Rwanda. They will wait for processing to relocate to other countries.
"Rwanda remains committed to offering refuge to people in need," the statement said.
In 2019, Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the African Union under which a transit mechanism for refugees and asylum seekers evacuated from Libya was set up.
Since September 2019, Rwanda has received more than 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya, according to the statement.
It said that 1,600 of the evacuees have been successfully moved to third countries with the majority of them, 496, resettled in Canada. The rest were resettled in Sweden, Norway, France, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium and the United States. ■
