Days after a move to evacuate Nigerians from Sudan began, families are still expecting their loved ones back home.
The Nigerian government appears to be battling with the means of evacuating citizens from Sudan.
For weeks, different countries have succeeded in evacuating their citizens from the Sudan, but Nigerians especially those schooling in Sudan are stranded.
Many are facing starvation while waiting for the federal government to come to their rescue.
On Sunday, the Nigerian government reaffirmed that the cost it had previously estimated for relocating stranded individuals from a war-torn Sudan to a neighbouring country would only be covered by bus rentals.
This was clarified by Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, the Permanent Secretary of the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and Chair of the Situation Room about the evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan, as seen in a video uploaded online by Channels TV following a meeting of the ministry in Abuja that was held behind closed doors.
Evacuation Of Stranded Nigerians
Sani-Gwarzo claimed that 40 buses had been rented for the trip from Sudan to Egypt, where the stranded Nigerians will be flown back to their homeland, and that $30,000 (or 13.8 million Naira at the official exchange rate of 460 Naira per dollar) had been paid every bus.
He said: “It’s ($1.2 million) only for one item, for the buses. Do you know how much it takes to hire a bus from Khartoum to the border? $30,000 per bus. $30,000 per bus times 40 uses.
“That is where $1.2 million comes into.
“We now sent first tranche approved by the Federal Government out of this, which is $400,000 and transferred it.
“If you take out $400,00, what does it come to?
“Once they give you 13 buses. 13 buses times $30,000 is how much- $390,000. They stopped giving us.
“You remember I told you they gave us 13 buses.
“They kept the $10,000. When you are travelling in Sudan, you don’t just enter bus and start going, you must load it with water and biscuits.
“Believe me, I just became an expert on Sudan overnight because every day we discuss with them.
“And they told us our money is finished, being another money.
“We now transferred the balance in tranches.
“Believe me, you don’t transfer money to Sudan directly.
“You have to get somebody who knows the country, who will transfer and give cash. Then you go into an agreement.”
Also, the ministry said signing of an MOU was also necessary for evacuation of Nigerians to happen.
“At every stage, I report to the DSS (Department of State Services) and NFIU (Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit) so that they can monitor the movement of the money,” he said, emphasising that the processes was judiciously monitored.
Difficulties With Transfers
According to him, bus owners demand for full payment for their services.
Also, he explained that any money sent out of a government account would first be marked as suspicious, saying it is one of the reasons the evacuation of Nigerians had been slow.
“Do you know that in Nigeria if you transfer money from government account, it does no click because it has a dashboard that can be seen?
“They will stop it so we had to alert them and we sent this money and it got delayed,” he added.
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It was earlier reported that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama, had said that the Nigerian government would spend $1.2 million to hire 40 buses for the evacuation of Nigerians trapped in Sudan.
Onyeama made the remarks in Abuja after the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday.
Onyeama told reporters that the Nigerian government would evacuate citizens within days amid the 72-hour ceasefire agreement between the warring factions in Sudan.
