The Federal Government claims that $1.2m was spent to deploy 40 buses to evacuate at least 2,400 stranded Nigerians out of Sudan.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said this to State House correspondents shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers of Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Onyeama, the high cost of the evacuation was to provide security cover for the eight-hour journey from Luxol to Cairo and the eleven-hour trip from Aswan to Cairo, Egypt.
Although the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces agreed to halt hostilities at midnight Monday, local media reported that fighting had resumed even as a hospital was shelled on Wednesday.
Noting that no Nigerian lost their lives in the conflict, Onyeama said there were no talks about alternative plans for continued education for the evacuees, most of whom are students of the University of Khartoum.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY 