Nigeria impounds UK aircraft for violating virus ban

By Felix Tih

ANKARA (AA) - Nigerian authorities said they have impounded a British aircraft for violating coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Flair Aviation, a UK-based company, was given the approval only for humanitarian operations but they were caught conducting commercial flights, according to Sirika Hadi, Nigeria's federal minister of aviation.

''The craft is impounded, crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve! Flag of Nigeria,'' Hadi said in a Twitter post on Sunday.

Several countries across the world have imposed travel bans to curb COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

With a population of nearly 200 million, the West African country has confirmed 5,959 virus cases, with 182 deaths and 1,594 recoveries.

More than 4.71 million cases have been reported in 188 countries and regions since the virus emerged in Wuhan, China last December. Brazil has overtaken Spain and Italy to become the country with the fourth largest number of confirmed infections in the world.

A significant portion of COVID-19 patients, nearly 1.74 million, have recovered, but the virus has claimed more than 315,000 lives, according to data compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.