Sudan Crisis: FG Spends N560m On Road Evacuation Of Nigerians
The Federal Government says the sum of $1.2 million (about N560m) has so far been invested to transport Nigerians stranded in Sudan by road to safe places where they can be airlifted home.
Similarly, the government has cleared the air that no Nigerian has died in the ongoing fighting between warring military factions in Sudan.
According to the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, who spoke to State House correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, “We are confident we shall not lose any life in this exercise to evacuate stranded Nigerians.”
Ambassador Dada disclosed that the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Nigerian Commission’s staff in Egypt and Ethiopia are currently positioned at the Egyptian border in Aswan to receive close to 40 luxury buses conveying Nigerians who had left the Sudanese capital, Khartoum by road.
He said the Saudi Arabia government had already assisted in evacuating some Nigerians through the sea, a development highly appreciated by the Federal Government.
Also addressing the issue, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, explained that the process commenced after the Federal Government was able to overcome initial challenges, noting that it would take a couple of days to fully evacuate stranded Nigerians.
Further disclosing that the sum of $1.2 million had so far been spent on the current efforts to move Nigerians by road, Onyeama said once they were safely in Egypt, other arrangements would be done on airlifting them back to Nigeria.
However, while hinting that women and children would be given priority before diplomats who were equally involved in the evacuation logistics, both Ministers said the Federal Government was leveraging the 72 hours cease-fire window offered by the warring Sudanese sides to evacuate as many Nigerians as possible.
