40 hired buses for the transportation of Nigerians stranded in Sudan by road to safe places costed $1.2million (about N560m), the federal government has revealed.
The government also said no Nigerian had died in the fight between warring military factions in Sudan so far.
Ambassador Zubairu Dada, the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, disclosed these 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 yesterday.
Dada added that the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and staff of the Nigerian commission in Egypt and Ethiopia are at the Egyptian border in Aswan to receive the 40 luxury buses transporting Nigerians who had left the Sudanese capital, Khartoum by road.
The minister of state also assured Nigerians that “We are confident we shall not lose any life in this exercise to evacuate stranded Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, the federal government overcame some initial challenges but the process which costed the FG $1.2m had eventually started, adding that it would take a couple of days to evacuate stranded Nigerians.
Onyeama said once they were safely moved to Egypt, other arrangements would be effected to airlift them back to Nigeria.
Nigeria and other nation governments in the world are leveraging the 72 hours cease fire window given by the Sudanese government to evacuate as many of their citizens as possible.
