The first group of several thousand Nigerians evacuated from Sudan had arrived in Abuja on Wednesday, May 3 after many tense days of rallying to escape the severe fighting in the country.
According to Nigerian authorities, the evacuation plan was covering at least 3,500 nationals, but their total number could be greater.
More than 5,000 Nigerians are believed to reside in Sudan, many of them students.
Nigeria’s commercial carrier Air Peace had landed in Abuja at about 11:40 pm with 260 passengers while another Nigerian aircraft arrived a few minutes later with about 90 passengers.
The Nigerian planes had left Aswan in Egypt for the five-hour journey to Abuja after several days of delay at the border after the initial convoy of 13 buses had left Khartoum on Thursday for Egypt with a plan to fly to Nigeria from there on Friday.
Meanwhile, another 20 buses all set to evacuate hundreds more Nigerians are still blocked in Sudan.
According to a NEMA official, this particular convoy would no longer go through Egypt, but will instead travel to Port Sudan, from where they should then fly back to Nigeria.
