Abuja, April 27, 2023 -The first batch of Nigerian evacuees from Sudan will arrive in Nigeria on Friday.
Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), announced this on Thursday while speaking at the weekly Ministerial Briefing of the Presidential Communication Team.
She said 13 buses had departed from two universities in Khartoum to the Aswan border in Egypt where the students would be airlifted to Nigeria.
Dabiri-Erewa said another challenge faced by the government was the higher number of Nigerians expressing interest in returning home than previously indicated.
“We have some buses that have departed from the African International University in Khartoum, Sudan and as I speak, I think they are just about two hours away from Aswan in Cairo.
“Others departed from the Elrazi University also in Khartoum.
“All in all, 13 buses have departed for Aswan border in Egypt where they will be received by the Nigerian Ambassador there and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Habib Ahmed, who is already there with some officials.”
She said it was time Nigeria focused more on Nigerians in Sudan and other parts of Africa as there were many residing in other African countries.
Dabiri-Erewa promised that whenever the students arrive in Nigeria, they would be given some stipends to help them settle down before joining their families.
“NEMA will decide what would be given to the returnees because the funding is with the “Ministry of Humanitarian affairs and Disaster Management. Usually is just a little amount. The last one we gave them we evacuated people, we gave them $100. So, it depends on the budget they have.
“But we in NIDCOM give them recharge cards, SIM cards and sometimes phones.
“Usually they get $100 just to hold and these are students coming back to their families. They are not refugees, they have homes,” she said. (GBN).
