The Nigerian government has said it spent the sum of $1.2 million to hire buses to transport stranded citizens from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital to Egypt, from where they would be airlifted to Nigeria.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday.
Giving an update on the situation in warring Sudan as regards the evacuation of Nigerian citizens, the minister said, “You recall that the main challenge we had was, first of all, securing the authorisation of the Sudanese government and then security support for the convoy. This is because it has been decided that we will transport or convey Nigerian 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 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; you’re going to hike up the price. 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.”
Zubairu Dada, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said no Nigerian life has been lost in Sudan since the war started on April 15. Dada said the government was determined to evacuate as many Nigerians as possible during the 72-hour window provided by the Sudanese government.
