THE Federal Government has written to the Embassy of Nigeria in Sudan requesting for its 200-seater buses to evacuate 3500 trapped Nigerian students to Cairo tomorrow (Tuesday).
In a letter exclusively obtained by News Point Nigeria, signed by the Charge D’ Affairs, Haruna Yusuf Garko, dated 23rd April, 2023, with reference number: NEKM/POL/03/III, the government stated that the buses will convey the students out of the North African country by 6am Tuesday.
An Embassy official, who spoke to News Point Nigeria on condition on anonymity Monday morning on this development said, there are about 7 of such buses available, therefore an estimated figure of 1,400 students will leave for Cairo Tuesday morning.
“The distance between Khartoum to Cairo by road is about 2,176km and that’s an estimated road trip of 50 hours. Therefore some other students will have to wait for a few days before the next phase of evacuation,” the official added.
On the evacuation of other Nigerian citizens, officials and businessmen In Sudan; “the instruction from the government is to evacuate the students first. Only the students”, the official stressed.
News Point Nigeria reported Sunday that, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama had stated that the trapped Nigerians students will be evacuated by road.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Onyeama said those stranded can’t be evacuated by air but gave no plans of the road evacuation.
“We have been given the cost estimate and all the details. They gave us a figure of 5,500 who are ready for evacuation. Obviously, what you need in a situation like this is a place where everybody can congregate before you start moving them out. Because the airports, as you pointed out in your report, it is out of commission. The only viable way out is by road.
“But of course, it is not totally safe so you are going to require the government to provide some security and a safe corridor out.”
He explained that “Our situation is particularly challenging because the numbers are so great. Some the countries like the US and European countries have started evacuating.
“But what they’ve been evacuating were actually their diplomatic staff. They haven’t been able to start evacuating their citizens there. We can’t evacuate all our diplomatic staff at the moment because they need to also coordinate the evacuation of all those students that we’re talking about.”
His comment comes as a statement from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Khartoum, signed by the Charge D’ Affairs H.Y Garko, advised students who make up about 80 percent of the stranded persons to stay indoors.