• No more Nigerians in war-torn country — FG
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
One hundred and thirty Nigerian evacuees have arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, at about 3:10 pm on Friday from Sudan
The 128 females and 2 infants were airlifted by an Sudanese airline, Taco Airline from Aswan in Egypt and Port Sudan back home.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who addressed the returnees, noted that no Nigerian was still in Sudan.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Nasir Sani Gwarzo, she said: “Today, we are celebrating a unique moment in this history of this evacuation exercise. Two days ago, we brought in evacuees from the border of Sudan Egypt through Aswan port.
“Today, all the people that arrived came from Port that is the port in Sudan in the Republic of Sudan. It is unique because the bunk of our people after facing the initial difficulty at the border of Egypt we moved them to the port of Sudan an we have now arrange flights to start bringing them back home.
“This plight is not only a successful outing, but it is an eye opener for the remaining legs of the journey.
“More flights have been activated. So far, the situation room which I chair and most of the members are here to welcome them.
“I want to emphasize that people that been receiving video clips through the social media indicating that there were some sick people, some women have delivered, yes, it is true.
“We had a delivery. She delivered in the hospital both mother and baby are doing well.
“We also had a somebody with a hand injury who was taking to hospital and was operated. He is now out of the hospital. He is doing very well. One of them had severe malaria.
“She had to be admitted. She has recovered and she is back. I spoke to all these three that I mentioned.
“One challenge that we face today which has thrown us into realigning our plans is that fact that some Nigerians were claimed to have entered the boss without permission which caused the Egypt side to delay the flight until that was sorted out.
“In the next few hours we shall have no Nigerian traveler stranded or kept in the Egyptian side.
“All our efforts will now be concentrated on the Sudanese Port and they will come home directly.
“They are other Nigerians that have been shipped by the Saudi Arabian government. They took them to Jepda.”
For those without passport, she said: “the good news is that the Nigerian Embassy in Egypt has moved all their consular officer. The ministry of foreign affairs told us that it has what is called ETC, Emergency Traveling Certificate which is being issued to all of them. Anybody without documents we will give them an ETC.”
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ahmed Mustapha Habib, disclosed that MaxAir Azman have been contacted to evacuate more Nigerians.
Habib said: “We have almost 800 passengers in the Egypt side, heading towards Aswan. We have aircraft already on the ground.
“We have MaxAir with capacity of over 550 passengers. We have Azman with capacity of 400 passengers.
“We have activated Air Peace we are waiting for their feedback. We are taking two flights out of Port Sudan. Taco Airline will continue with about 4 flights as they promised us today.”