The Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development have verified that the first batch of 13 buses carrying 637 trapped Nigerian students landed safely at Egypt’s Aswan borders.
They also described how $1.2 million was negotiated to hire buses to transport evacuees.
According to them, the appropriate papers and clearance before entrance into Egyptian land for their final evacuation to Nigeria was still in progress.
According to a joint statement issued by the ministries’ Permanent Secretaries, the transfer of the second batch of 29 buses began yesterday.
Evacuees were urged to arrive at the designated sites with only one piece of luggage.
It emphasized that, contrary to social media speculation, embassy personnel were very much on the ground in Khartoum to coordinate the evacuation drill to the very end.
The statement emphasized that the uproar over the $1.2 million negotiated price for the buses hired for the exercise was uncalled for.
According to the statement, the price was negotiated while the country was at war, and there were competing demands for the same bus services from other countries who were also attempting to evacuate their citizens.
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