Sudan evacuation: FG hires 40 buses at N560m
The Federal Government says it has spent $1.2million (about N560m) to transport Nigerians stranded in Sudan by road to safe places where they can be flown home.
The government also said no Nigerian had died in the fight between warring military factions in Sudan so far.
The Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, disclosed these Wednesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said, “We are confident we shall not lose any life in this exercise to evacuate stranded Nigerians.”
Dada said the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and staff of the Nigerian commission in Egypt and Ethiopia are currently on the ground in the Egyptian border in Aswan to receive close to 40 luxury buses conveying Nigerians who had left the Sudanese capital, Khartoum by road.
He added that the Saudi Arabia government had already evacuated some Nigerians through the sea, a development he noted was highly appreciated by the federal government.
While speaking, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the process started after the federal government had overcome some challenges, adding that it would take a couple of days to evacuate stranded Nigerians.
He said the sum of $1.2 million had been spent so far on the current effort to move them by road.
Onyeama said once they were safely moved to Egypt, other arrangements would be effected to airlift them back to Nigeria.
Both Ministers said women and children would be given priority before diplomats who were equally involved in the evacuation logistics.
They said the Nigerian government was leveraging the 72 hours cease fire window given by the Sudanese government to evacuate as many Nigerians as possible.
[DailyTrust]
