TheCable

The federal government says 160 women claiming to be Nigerians in war-torn Sudan have no passports to fly back to the country.

In a press briefing on Sunday, Mustapha Ahmed, director general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the agency was being careful not to evacuate non-Nigerians.

Ahmed said the women did not possess Nigerian passports to verify their citizenship claims.

According to the director-general, some persons claimed their great-grandparents up to the fifth generation were Nigerians while they were born in Sudan.

He said the agency was taking extra caution based on how some desperate Sudanese tried to enter the vehicles that were meant to move Nigerians from their country to the Egypt border.

Although Ahmed did not speak on the total amount expended on the evacuation process, he said Nigeria paid a total of $22,662 as exit fees at the point of moving the evacuees from Sudan and $62,950 for entry visas into Egypt.

He noted that windows of evacuation were still open to any Nigerian with verified documents who is interested in returning to the country.

While noting that no life has been lost to the Sudan crisis, he said 23 sick evacuees were received, out of which 10 were treated on arrival by medics while 13 were referred to the 108 Nigerian Air Force Hospital, Abuja.

The evacuation of Nigerian students from Egypt’s border and Port Sudan began on May 3 and ended on Saturday.

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) said it took 15 flights to evacuate 2,518 Nigerians.