The first set of 637 Nigerian students evacuated from Sudan are stranded at the Egyptian border with the war-torn country.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, who spoke yesterday, said the Egyptian authorities had not opened its border with Sudan for the students, three days after their arrival.
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Onyeama told the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) that the Egyptian authorities had insisted on clearing all the 637 Nigerians before they could be allowed entry into their country.
He expressed regret that a C-130 Hercules plane had arrived Egypt from Nigeria to bring home the Nigerians but it has not been possible.
He explained that the Federal Government might move the students to Port Sudan for evacuation if Egypt delayed further
Port Sudan is 825 kilometres to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital and the epicentre of the ongoing battle for the soul of the country by rival army generals.
Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, explained at a news conference in Abuja yesterday that 420 out of the 637 Nigerians had so far been cleared by the Egyptian authorities.
Giving an update on the ongoing evacuation, Sani-Gwarzo added that each of the evacuated Nigerians was mandated to pay $8 at the Sudanese border to exit and an additional $25 before they could gain entry into the Egyptian border.
He also said that other Nigerians still stranded would be moved to Wadi Alfa, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.
His words: “The reason is the border arrangements in those locations are different from the usual border arrangements we are used to in West Africa. You need a visa, you need to pay a fee to exit a country and you need to pay a fee to enter a new country.
“What the Sudanese border is asking Nigerians to pay is equivalent to $8 for an exit, and the equivalent for the Egyptian is asking per evacuated citizen is $25. It’s not the money that matters, it’s the permission.”
