The Federal Government, on Wednesday said no Nigerian died in the fierce battle ravaging Sudanese since April 15.
Mr Zuberu Dada, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, who announced this in Abuja, said the government had started evacuating Nigerians after securing authorisation from the Sudanese government to evacuate Nigerians to safety.
“We are evacuating Nigerians in batches to ensure their safety.
“But the good news is that no Nigerian died so far,” Dada said.
He said the government had also arranged for security support and transportation for evacuated Nigerians to the Egyptian border.
The minister hinted that the government was making efforts to evacuate as many Nigerians as possible during the 72-hour window provided by the Sudanese government.
He also said some Nigerians were evacuated by ship from the Port Sudan by the government of Saudi Arabia.
“Don’t forget that this is a joint effort. We have friendly nations that are ready to assist.
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“Saudi authorities have picked up some Nigerians by ship, I guess to Jeddah in particular.
“From where we’ll link up and find a way of bringing them back from Jeddah,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffery Onyeama, said Nigerian diplomats were on ground to coordinate the evacuation.
He said they gaive women and children priority.
Onyema added that the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Muhammadu Muhammed, was on ground in Egypt.
He was coordinating the logistics with embassy staff to ensure smooth evacuation process.
According to him, Nigeria had paid $1.2 million for the 40 buses hired for the evacuation.
“We have huge transporter luxury buses to transport Nigerians to the Egyptian border.
“Of course because of the risks involved and so many other things, a lot of people are going to also take advantage by hiking their fares.
“We saw that the French convoy was attacked and so forth.
“It was difficult procuring these buses, but we had to do it because Nigerian lives matters for us,” Onyema said.
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