Stranded Nigerians to be evacuated from Sudan by road – FG

The Foreign Affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama says that Federal Government will be evacuating stranded Nigerians from Sudan by road.

There have been reports that a lot of Nigerians have been stranded in the North African country, Sudan following a power tussle which has caused some crises in the country.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, the Foreign Affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama said it was impossible to evacuate such a large amount of people through aircraft hence the decision to evacuate these stranded Nigerians via road.

“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 said.

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”, Geoffrey Onyeama added.