THE Federal Government, has revealed that the 160 women claiming to be Nigerians in Sudan do not have passports to return home.
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed, revealed this in Abuja today while updating the press on the status of the evacuation of Nigerians from the war-torn Sudan.
According to him, the women claimed to be Nigerians but did not have Nigerian passports to back up their claims.
He added that the agency is taking caution not to evacuate non-Nigerians.
It should be noted that, before to the beginning of the evacuation operation, the Nigerian Diaspora Commission had stated that there were around three million Nigerians in Sudan, with a total of 5,000 students.
However, the NEMA chief stated that, aside from the 2,518 Nigerians who have been evacuated and the 15 flights that had been handled so far, the citizenship of many of those claiming to be Nigerians cannot be validated.
He added that some of them claimed their great-grandparents up to the fifth generation were Nigerians while they were born in Sudan, but this has yet to be confirmed.
He also described how several desperate Sudanese attempted to enter vehicles intended to transport Nigerians from Sudan to the Egyptian border.
When asked how much it cost to evacuate Nigerians from Sudan, Ahmed did not provide a specific figure, but he did reveal that Nigeria paid a total of $22,662 in exit costs at the point of transporting the evacuees from Sudan and $62,950 in entry visa fees into Egypt.
Meanwhile, NEMA stated that the door is open to any Nigerian with confirmed documents who want to return to the nation.
A pregnant woman among the 2,518 Nigerian returnees is said to have given birth while waiting to be evacuated. Her infant was the only infant among the evacuees. The eight-day-old baby is being treated for jaundice at the University Of Abuja Teaching Hospital in Gwagwalada.
According to NEMA, no Nigerian lives were lost in the Sudanese conflict. However, 23 sick evacuees were received, with 10 being treated on arrival by medics and 13 being referred to the 108 Nigerian Airforce Hospital in Abuja.
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