Key highlights:
- Members of staff of the embassy in Egypt and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Mr Mustapha Habeeb-Muhammed received the evacuees.
- 10 of the 40 buses transported Nigerians from Universities in Khartoum.
- Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of $1.2 million for the immediate evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
The Nigerian Government disclosed that the first set of Nigerian students evacuated from Sudan will arrive Friday.
This was disclosed in a statement by Mr Abdur-Rahman Balogun, Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) after a State House briefing by Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, NiDCOM.
This comes after the FG disclosed it had spent the sum of $1.2 million to evacuate Nigerian students to Egypt and airlift them to Nigeria.
Arrival
The statement read that the first batch of stranded Nigerians in Sudan have been evacuated by the Federal Government and are expected to arrive in Abuja on Friday, adding that a total of 13 out of the 40 buses hired to transport Nigerians from Sudan already left since Wednesday and moved by road to the border town of Aswan in Egypt, they added:
- “Members of staff of the embassy in Egypt and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Mr Mustapha Habeeb-Muhammed received the evacuees.
- “10 of those buses transported Nigerians from Universities in Khartoum while the remaining three buses were dispatched to El- Razi University to convey them to the town in Egypt.
Discrimination
The Commission stated responded to allegations of segregation, stating that children and women were given priority as they were profiled for administrative purposes, they added:
- “ A Boeing 777 from Airpeace would depart Lagos by the evening of Thursday and would transport the first batch home on Friday.
The Commission also noted that all Nigerians who registered to be evacuated home would be facilitated irrespective of status, gender and state, on the safety of the students, they added that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, already secured the understanding of the two warring factions before the transportation of Nigerians by road.
Backstory
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the sum of $ 1.2 million for the immediate evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, stated that the costs would be used for 40 buses to transport the students to Egypt and airlift them, citing that it was difficult procuring these buses after the French convoy was attacked.
- “This is because it has been decided that we will transport or convey Nigerians to the Egyptian border, Aswan.
- ”We are liaising with our embassy in Egypt as well; so we have been able to overcome these challenges and we have started the process which we are very happy about.
- “$1.2 million dollars is what we’re being charged for all the 40 buses. We have huge transport luxury buses made available to us to transport our citizens to the Egyptian border.
- ”Of course you know, because of the risks involved and so many other things, a lot of people are going to also take advantage.
- ”We saw that the French convoy was attacked and so forth. It was difficult procuring these buses. But we had to do it because you know Nigerian lives matter to us.”
