One hundred and thirty Nigerian evacuees have arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja. The flight ferrying them from Sudan touched down about 3:10 pm on Friday.
The 128 females and two infants were airlifted by an Sudanese airline, Taco Airline from Aswan in Egypt and Port Sudan back home.
Nasir Sani Gwarzo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, who represented the minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, noted that no Nigerian was still in Sudan.
He said: “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 and we have now arranged 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 “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.
“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 bus 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 traveller stranded or kept on the Egyptian side.
“All our efforts will now be concentrated on the Sudanese Port and they will come home directly.”
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 on 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 four flights as they promised us today.”
