KIGALI, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda welcomed 169 African asylum-seekers Thursday night, the latest group evacuated from Libya through a transit mechanism, according to the ministry in charge of emergency management.
In a statement, the ministry said the asylum-seekers hail from Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
"They safely landed at Kigali International Airport. Rwanda remains committed to offering refuge and assistance to people in need," read the statement.
The evacuees were transported to the Gashora transit center, in eastern Rwanda, pending the processing of their resettlement to other countries, the statement said.
The asylum-seekers were evacuated under the 2019 memorandum of understanding signed between the Rwandan government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the African Union under which a transit mechanism for evacuating refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya was set up.
Early this month, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 6,600 people have received resettlement assistance from Rwanda this year. Those resettled include 1,288 persons who were first evacuated from Libya to Rwanda.
As of Sept. 30, Rwanda hosts over 135,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, according to the UNHCR. ■