The federal government said the only viable way to evacuate Nigerians out of war-torn Sudan was by road.
According to The PUNCH, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyema, disclosed this in an interview on Channel Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
According to him, Nigeria, for security reasons, will get authorisation from the Sudanese government before the evacuation.
“So essentially, where we are at the moment is trying to get the authorisation from the Sudanese government to undertake this long journey and for them to provide some security. Now we don’t want to take any risk or risk the lives of any Nigerian. Yesterday, for instance, how the French in trying to evacuate their citizens came under fire. We don’t want to expose our brothers and sisters to that danger as well.
“We are doing everything we can to get the requisite approval for the Sudanese government at the very highest level. I was in touch today with somebody in the Office of the President and made a formal request to have a safe corridor to evacuate our people. And they confirmed that they had received it and they would be giving us attention.”
Recall that Nigerians based in Sudan, including over 5,500 students, have been calling on the government to evacuate them out of the Horn of Africa country since the crisis broke out in the country two weeks ago.
