On Wednesday, the Federal Government announced that it had spent $1.2 million to send 40 buses to evacuate nearly 2,400 trapped Nigerians from Sudan.
At the conclusion of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting held in the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja and presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said this while briefing State House media.
According to the Minister, the cost of the evacuation includes the provision of security coverage for the eleven-hour flight from Aswan, Egypt, to Cairo, Egypt, as well as the eight-hour flight from Luxol to Cairo.
He claimed that the Nigerian government's plans to safely remove its residents from the civil war-torn Sudan dominated the council meeting's proceedings.
Despite their agreement to end hostilities at midnight on Monday, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces reportedly resumed fighting on Wednesday, even as a hospital was being bombarded.
Onyeama, who observed that no Nigerians perished in the violence, claimed that there have been no discussions regarding alternate arrangements for the evacuees, the most of whom are University of Khartoum students, to continue their education.
Recall that early on Wednesday, roughly 40 buses were despatched to transport Nigerians out of Khartoum and other unrest-ridden areas of Sudan.
The evacuation intended on Tuesday was unsuccessful due to logistical issues, according to the Nigerian Diaspora Commission's explanation.
The commission's chairman, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, acknowledged that the revised travel arrangements had been decided upon as of Tuesday night.
"Last night, the Nigeria Evacuation team in Sudan got some buses to transfer Nigerian Students to close Egyptian borders, before airlifting them to Nigeria," she wrote on Twitter. "This has been resolved by Federal Government through @nemanigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan.
The stuck kids will leave today, and more buses are coming this morning.
