160 Women claiming to be Nigerians in Sudan without passports for evacuation – FG

The Federal Government on Sunday said that it had concluded evacuation of Nigerians from war-torn Sudan but there were 160 others that were yet to be profiled.

Aside from profiling, the apex government explained that the 160 Nigerians also have no passports to aid their evacuation back to Nigeria.

The Director General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Ahmed, stated this in Abuja on Sunday while briefing journalists on the country’s evacuation progress.

According to Ahmed, although the women claimed to be Nigerians, they do not possess Nigerian passports to verify their claims.

He said though the 160 Nigerians were awaiting evacuation, the government was working to confirm their identities and put plans in motion to evacuate them.

“We have evacuated all students. The Ambassador in Sudan has called and said that there are 160 women and children with no passports still in Sudan. I said he must profile, access and verify who they are.

“If it is confirmed that those 160 women and children are truly Nigerians then we can evacuate them. This will be the closure for the evacuation exercise.”

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It will be recalled that before the commencement of the evacuation exercise, the Nigerian Diaspora Commission had said there were about three million Nigerians in Sudan and a total of 5,000 students.

However, the NEMA boss said apart from the 2,518 Nigerians that have so far been evacuated and 15 flights operated so far, the citizenship of many of those claiming to be Nigerians cannot be verified.

He said some of them claimed their great-grandparents up to the fifth generation were Nigerians while they were born in Sudan but that remains unverified.

He disclosed how some desperate Sudanese tried to enter the vehicles that were meant to move Nigerians from Sudan to Egypt border.

On the amount spent so far to evacuate Nigerians from Sudan, Ahmed said the country paid a total of $22,662 as exit fees at the point of moving the evacuees from Sudan and $62,950 for entry visas into Egypt.

NAN