Air Peace bringing back items of Evacuees who left Egypt without luggage – FG

The belongings of the evacuees who left Egypt without luggage are being conveyed back to Nigeria through by Air Peace.

Nigeria’s ambassador to Egypt, Abba Nura Rimi, confirmed this to a Nigerian Sudan-based journalist on Wednesday night.

Daily Trust had reported how the Air Force plane deployed to Egypt to bring back Nigerians who fled crisis-ridden Sudan left without the luggage of the evacuees.

The decision was taken in order to make the aircraft convey more evacuees.

Egypt had initially refused to allow Nigerians entry into its territory over visa issues.

But sources told Daily Trust that the evacuees were allowed into Egypt after Nigerian security and intelligence community started deploying their contacts and connections with their Egyptian counterparts, to remove some of the hurdles that had frustrated Nigerian representatives’ efforts.

A very highly placed source in the security community, who spoke under conditions of anonymity, in Abuja on Tuesday, said on President Muhammadu Buhari’s instruction, the National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno, reached out to his Egyptian counterpart, Faiza Abou el-Naga, who pulled strings that have made the evacuation process smooth.

Although the details of the arrangements were not made public, the source said “this initiative, which was broached and complimented by the Egyptian National Security Adviser (NSA), Faiza Abou el-Naga, and her Nigerian counterpart, General Monguno, has so far allowed a smooth movement across the border into Egypt.

“Faiza told NSA Monguno that Nigeria’s request, which he submitted, had been graciously approved by President el-Sisi, who also sent his fraternal greetings to President Buhari. Consequently, the deployment of the NAF aircrafts and the one by Air Peace were to be allowed to proceed with evacuation plans.

“Conditions required for the evacuation plans included details and schedules of the aircraft, capacity of the aircraft, strong pledge that once Nigerians depart the border, they would be conveyed to the destination.”