Sudan unrest: FG spent $1.2m to evacuate stranded Nigerians to Egypt — Ministry
The Federal Government on Wednesday in Abuja said it had spent $1.2m to deploy 40 buses to evacuate at least 2,400 stranded Nigerians out of Sudan due to ongoing unrest in the Northeast African country.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this to State House correspondents shortly after this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Council Chambers of Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Onyeama said the high cost of the evacuation was to provide security cover for the eight-hour journey from Luxol to Cairo and the eleven-hour trip from Aswan to Cairo, Egypt.
Although the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces agreed to halt hostilities at midnight Monday, local media reports that fighting had resumed even as a hospital was shelled on Wednesday.
While noting that no Nigerian lost their lives in the conflict, Onyeama said there were no talks about alternative plans for continued education for the evacuees, most of whom are students of the University of Khartoum.
