The Federal Government on Saturday explained that only smaller planes can evacuate stranded Nigerians in Port Sudan for now.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management of Social Development, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo stated this after receiving the third batch of 131 evacuees from Port Sudan in Abuja.
The Tarco airline plane B737-300 that conveyed the third batch of returnees touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport at 1.45 pm on Saturday.
Sani-Gwarzo said efforts are still on to get permits from the Sudanese government and other neighbouring countries so as to send bigger planes.
At the reception for the evacuees, Sani-Gwarzo also gave the assurance that more planes will be going to Sudan.
He said: “More aircraft will go. Our limitation has not been the ability to send aircraft but the fact that large-bodied aircraft cannot go to Port Sudan at the moment except smaller ones, otherwise, you would have seen about 500 at a go.
“We are still working with the Sudanese government and those countries along the route to make sure that large-bodied aircraft can go. With that, I assure you in less than 24 hours, we will finish the evacuation”.
On those who are sick, Sani-Gwarzo said there are three people that are sick and they are being taken to the hospital. One has a wound in his hand and two others suffer severe abdominal pain due to an ulcer.
“We sent them to the hospital not because their condition is bad but because we want the maximum best for them. From the hospital, they will proceed home because they look stable but we don’t want to take any chance”, he said.
On his part, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Ahmed said the action to bring women, children and the sick was deliberate.
