Fresh batch of 125 Nigerians arrive in Abuja from Sudan

No fewer than 125 evacuees, including 22 children, landed aboard a Tarco Airline Boeing 737 from Port Sudan by 5 pm Nigerian time.

On hand to receive them were officials of the National Management Emergency Agency; the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission.

At the time of this report, the evacuees were being processed into the country by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service using their passports and Emergency Travel Certificates (ETCs).

This is the first set of evacuees since President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29.

The Federal Government, on May 14, said 160 women claiming to be Nigerians in Sudan had no passports to fly back to the country.

The NEMA Director General, Mustapha Ahmed, stated that the agency was exercising caution in order not to evacuate persons who were not Nigerians.

Before the commencement of the evacuation exercise, the Nigerian Diaspora Commission had said there were about three million Nigerians in Sudan and a total of 5,000 students.

However, NEMA explained that, apart from the 2,518 Nigerians that had hitherto been evacuated and 15 flights operated, the citizenship of many of those claiming to be Nigerians could not be verified.