On Tuesday morning, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed intentions to evacuate nearly 2,000 Nigerians from crisis-hit Sudan.
“The truth is nobody has been evacuated yet. I just spoke to the ambassador Olaniyan in Khartoum a few minutes ago,” the agency’s Director, Special Duties, Onimode Bandele, said during a live appearance Monday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“It is true that there are plans to get buses to start moving tomorrow morning. And as I speak to you, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Habib, is already in Cairo because that is the window that we are looking at.”
According to him, the movement is to be perfected between the Nigerian embassy in Khartoum and the NEMA director general.
Asked how many Nigerians to be removed from the troubled North African country, Bandele stated that evacuation of a few thousand citizens are in the works.
“Our projection was that most students and others who want to evacuate are about 5,000. But with my discussion with the ambassador this morning, the plan is for about 2,650-2,800 to move immediately, including families of embassy staff.
“As these plans continue, we’ll be able to update you with the actual figure and the exact time of departure from Khartoum to Cairo,” he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, on Sunday, put the number of Nigerians in Sudan at 5,500.
He disclosed that out of the number, 80 percent of them are students, adding that some countries had only evacuated their diplomatic staff and not all of their citizens as speculated online.
Onyeama urged Nigerians in the crisis-torn country to “stay where you are” before the evacuation begins.
“Essentially, where we are at the moment is trying to get authorisation from the Sudanese government to undertake this long convoy journey and for them to provide some security,” he added.