Valentine Okafor
The Federal Government has said that many Nigerians had already been evacuated by sea by the Saudi Arabian government, denying that no one among them died in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his Minister of State, Zubairu dropped the details while briefing the media in Abuja.
Speaking on the developments around the evacuation process, Dada said the Federal Government had successfully secured permission and authorisation 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,” he assured.
On if all Nigerians will be evacuated before 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 announced some Nigerians have already been evacuated by ship by the government of Saudi Arabia.
“Let me also add that some Nigerians have actually been evacuated by ship, I guess from Port Sudan, by the government of Saudi Arabia. Don’t forget, this is a joint effort. We have friendly nations that are ready to assist, you know, so that we’re having to record that the Saudi authorities have been able to, pick up some Nigerians, they’re transporting them by ship, I guess to Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah in particular. From where, of course, again, we’ll link up and find a way of bringing them back from Jeddah those that succeed in going to Jeddah,” he said.
