No fewer than 5,500 Nigerian students in Sudan will arrive today after being evacuated from the war-torn North African country.
The chairperson of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said this on Thursday at the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.
She said there are over three million Nigerians residing in Sudan and efforts are in hand to evacuate as many of them as possible.
She revealed that already 13 buses carrying Nigerians have departed Sudan for the Egyptian border Aswan, from where the returnees would be airlifted back to Nigeria.
“The first batch are expected in Nigeria today, Friday,” her spokesperson quoted her as saying at the briefing.
“We have some buses that have departed from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan and as I speak, I think they are just about two hours away from Aswan in Cairo,” Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said Thursday.
“Others departed from the Elrazi University also in Khartoum. All in all, 13 buses have departed for Aswan border in Egypt where they will be received by the Nigerian Ambassador there and the Director General of the National emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Habib Ahmed, who is already there with some officials.”
She allayed the fears that the buses conveying the Nigerians would be attacked by either of the two factions fighting in Sudan, saying the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, already secured the understanding of the leaders of the factions before the transportation of Nigerians by road.