Despite the Federal Government claiming to have spent $1.2 million to deploy 40 buses for the evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan, several people remain stranded at the Egyptian border, with many trapped.
According to recent reports, approximately 7,000 nationals, including Nigerians, do not have unrestricted access to their various destinations.
On Friday, the Federal Government urged relevant authorities along Sudan’s contiguous borders to create a humane environment in which they could travel freely to their various destinations.
The chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who made the call, stated that the nationals had been denied entry into Egypt since their arrival on Thursday evening.
Dabiri-Erewa confirmed the arrival of the first group of stranded Nigerians in Sudan at the Egypt-Sudan border on Thursday.
Dabiri-Erewa, who confirmed the development in a tweet, said the border was already closed when the students arrived, and that they would fly out the next morning.
However, in a statement signed by Gabriel Odu, Publicity Unit, NiDCOM, the chairman said “The Nigerian mission in Egypt has been working tirelessly on this as the Egyptian authorities are insisting on visas by fellow Africans to transit back to their countries.
“She appeals to the Egyptian authorities to kindly allow the already traumatised travellers to transit to their final destinations in various countries in Africa.”
Recall that during a briefing with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting on Wednesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, said that the FG had spent $1.2 million to deploy buses for the evacuation of stranded Nigerians out of Sudan.
According to Oyeama, the cost of the evacuation includes security coverage for the eight-hour trip from Luxol to Cairo and the eleven-hour trip from Aswan to Cairo, Egypt.