The first set of Nigerians evacuated from war-torn Sudan arrived Abuja on Wednesday night.
Minister of humanitarian affairs Sadiya Farouq who received them at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja presented each of them with a sum of N100,000, N25,000 worth of recharge cards and 1.5 gigabytes of data.
The minister stated that the cash and other gifts given to the returnees were to make them comfortable as they return to the country.
She said, “Today, we are very happy to receive them. They have gone through a very traumatic period but we give thanks to Almighty Allah that all of them are back safely. No life was lost which is the most important thing. All the efforts put in place were not in vain. I thank every member of the Committee that has put all efforts to ensure that these people are brought back safely and with dignity. We thank the transport companies for their support.”
The minister said a total of 376 persons arrived in the country from Eygpt, stating that the Air Peace aircraft conveyed 282 persons while that of the Nigeria Air Force evacuated 94.
While commending the management of Air Peace, Farouq said, “They (evacuees) will be in the hall and they will go through a process of profiling. Afterwhich they will go through the immigration and they will be given their dignity packs for them to get back to their respective destinations. Some of them, their family members are here to receive them while others would be under our care until they get to their families.”
