File photo shows Salah Abu-Rgiga, African affairs official of the Foreign Ministry of Libya, speaking during a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, Nov. 19, 2017, after Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli launched an investigation into the reported immigrant slave markets. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

LAGOS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government on Thursday said it has commenced mass evacuation of citizens stranded in Libya home.

Spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Sani Datti said a government delegation led by Geoffrey Onyema, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, had arrived in the North African country to begin the process.

Datti said that the delegation arrived in Tripoli, on Wednesday ahead of the actual evacuation operation expected to commence on Friday to transport stranded Nigerians with two indigenous carriers engaged for the exercises.

A total of 5,037 stranded citizens have been identified for evacuation home, he added, noting that the Nigerian mission in Libya is coordinating the identification of the Nigerian migrants with the support of the International Organization for Migration.

He said the evacuation exercises was being led by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinated by the National Emergency Management Agency with the involvement of all the relevant agencies.

The evacuation exercise was in line with the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari to evacuate all Nigerian nationals stranded in Libya and other countries.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia is also working to repatriate its citizens stranded in conflict wracked Libya. Meles Alem, Spokesperson for Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday his country is collaborating with International Organization for Migration to give travel documents to stranded Ethiopians in Libya.

The civil war in Libya that has engulfed the North African nation ever since the demise of longtime leader Muammer Gaddafi in 2011 has made it a haven for terrorists and criminals.

Stories of African migrants being sold to slavery in Libya has been harrowing to Ethiopians who still remember the execution of about two dozen Ethiopian migrants by terrorists in April 2015 in Libya.

It is estimated thousands of Ethiopians have in recent years used Libya as a transit point to be smuggled to European countries.