No Nigerian casualties in Sudan conflict, FGN assures
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has assured that no Nigerian life has been lost in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
They disclosed that many Nigerians have already been evacuated by sea to Saudi Arabia, and the evacuation process is being carried out in batches to ensure the safety of all Nigerians.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and his Minister of State, Zubairu Dada, made these disclosures to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Dada said that the Nigerian government had successfully secured permission and authorization from the Sudanese government to evacuate Nigerians from the country.
“The evacuation is being done in batches to ensure the safety of all Nigerians, but the good news is that no Nigerian life has been lost so far. I think it’s important to stress that all Nigerians are very safe and we’re very confident and hopeful that we shall not lose any Nigerian life Insha Allah in this exercise. All is well and we’re good to go.”
Regarding the 72-hour window, Dada said, “We have no problem about the 72-hour window. Because we’ve talked to all the authorities concerned, and we’re on the same page. But talking about the window, we are making every effort to ensure that we make use of this window to evaluate as many Nigerians as we possibly can.” Dada also disclosed that the government of Saudi Arabia had already evacuated some Nigerians by ship.
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“On how the operation is being handled, all lives are equal. Certainly, we won’t want to give preference to diplomats. The diplomats are just as good as every other Nigerian, so we will take them all on board, depending on who’s ready and available at any point in time. In the order of evacuation, women and children will be prioritized, adding that diplomats will not be evacuated before the students and other Nigerians,” Dada said.
Onyeama said, “With regards to the evacuation of Nigerians in Sudan, you’ll recall that the main challenge we had was securing permission, first of all, authorization of the Sudanese government, and some security support for the convoy because it’s been decided that we will transport or convey the Nigerians to the Egyptian border Aswan. We are liaising with our embassy in Egypt as well. So we’ve been able to overcome a number of challenges and have started the process, which we’re very happy about. We secured a significant number of luxurious buses because the distances are quite considerable. We started the process, and it will take maybe a couple of days to evacuate everybody.”
“On the gender question, I think that’s obviously something we will have to look into in a bit more detail, but I think ordinarily, it will be appropriate that women and children should be given priority. I think that goes without saying,” he said.
Regarding the cost of the evacuation, Onyeama said, “$1.2 million is what we’re being charged for all the 40 buses. We have huge transporter luxury buses made available to us to transport 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, 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 Nigerian lives matter to us.”
Onyeama also explained that the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Muhammadu Muhammed, was already on the ground in Egypt and coordinating the logistics with embassy staff to ensure a smooth evacuation process.
“Now, regarding the evacuation process, what we are primarily responsible for, is to ensure the safe evacuation from Egypt, of all the Nigerians who want to leave. The numbers as the honourable minister has said, have left through various borders, and by ship thanks to the Saudis.
“So the exact numbers that will now make it on that convoy to Egypt is not exactly clear at the moment. But once they get there is from Aswan, as the Honorable Minister has also said, the director general of NEMA is there, and they are now going to take over with regards to getting them back to Nigeria.
“So whether they use military transport planes, C-130, I spoke to the Chief of Defence Staff, and he indicated that there were some military transport planes that will be available. And of course, you mentioned you know, Air Peace making that offer and there are other airlines, too, that their owners might also want to make an offer, but we will leave it to never to coordinate who they use to transport by air, these citizens of ours”, he said.