Nigeria citizens, mostly students to be evacuated by road to Egypt.

The Nigerian government said Wednesday that it had begun evacuating thousands of its nationals, mostly students, from conflict-torn Sudan, by road to Egypt. “The evacuation of our nationals has begun. Seven buses have left Khartoum and are heading to Egypt,” Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency of Nigeria (Nema) told Pressmen.

In all, some 40 buses have been hired to transport the stranded Nigerians, according to Ezekiel, who said 3,500 Nigerians were to be transported initially to Aswan, in neighboring Egypt. “We think there are more than 5,000 Nigerians (in Sudan) but for now we are talking about 3,500, including students, who will be transported in buses to Aswan in Egypt,” Ezekiel said.    According to him, the trip “will take some time because Khartoum is about 1,200 kilometers from Aswan. Once they arrive in Aswan, the evacuated Nigerians will be flown to Abuja, the Nigerian capital. The local airline Air Peace has volunteered to fly the Nigerians for free.