How FG Spent $1.2M To Evacuate Stranded Nigerians To Cairo
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Nigeria News
The Federal Government, on Wednesday, in Abuja said it has spent $1.2m
to deploy 40 buses to evacuate at least 2,400 stranded Nigerians out of Sudan.
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.
READ: $1.2M Sudan Evacuation: Buhari Government Uses Every Tragedy To Loot - Odinkalu
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.
At least 40 buses were sent to move Nigerians out of Khartoum and
other troubled parts of Sudan early Wednesday.
The Nigerians in
the Diaspora Commission explained that the evacuation planned for Tuesday
failed due to logistic challenges.
Chairperson of the Commission,
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed that the new travel plans were finalised Tuesday
night.
She tweeted, “Last night, the Nigeria Evacuation team in
Sudan received some buses to transport Nigerian Students to nearby borders in
Egypt, before airlifting them to Nigeria, this has been sorted by the Federal
Government through @nemanigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan.
“More buses are arriving this morning and the stranded students
will depart today.”
Of this amount was spent on education maybe they wouldn't have traveled
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