Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the first batch of stranded Nigerians in crisis-ravaged Sudan evacuated by the federal government will arrive in Abuja today.
Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed this during a briefing at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
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She said a total of 13 out of the 40 buses hired to transport Nigerians from the troubled Sudan already left since Wednesday and moved by road to Border town of Aswan in Egypt where both the Embassy staff in Egypt and the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will receive the evacuees.
A statement issued yesterday by Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit of NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, quoted Dabiri-Erewa as saying 10 of those buses transported Nigerians from Universities in Khartoum while the remaining three buses were dispatched to El- Razi University to convey them to the border town in Egypt.
On allegations of segregation and discrimination in the evacuation process, she explained that children and women were given priority as they were profiled for administrative purposes.
The NIDCOM boss said a Boeing 777 from Airpeace will depart Lagos by evening of Thursday and will transport the first batch home on Friday, the statement added.
She assured all Nigerians that all those who registered to be evacuated home will all be facilitated irrespective of status, gender and state.
Dabiri-Erewa clarified that apart from the huge population of Nigerian students in Sudan, there were millions of other Nigerians in the country doing their legitimate business and residing there peacefully.
She allayed the fears of being attacked by the warlords, saying the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Geoffrey Onyeama already secured the understanding of the two warlords before the transportation of Nigerians by road.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had recently approved $1.2million for the immediate evacuation of the Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
According to the minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, the amount would be spent on the hiring of 40 luxury buses that will transport the stranded Nigerians from Khartoum, Sudan, to Egypt, from where they will be airlifted to Nigeria.