The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) says it commenced the disbursement of N100,000 and Dignity Packs to each of the 350 Nigerian evacuated from war-torn Sudan on arrival at the airport in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking soon after the arrival of the returnees, a representative of the Foundation, Maryam Buhari-Shehu, said the Board of Trustees of the Foundation has resolved to be fully involved in the evacuation and resettling of thousands zof Nigerians that were stranded in Sudan until recently.
The returnees including children were registered by the ADF for the exercise on the first day and received the support in collaboration with the Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and Air Peace to provide succour to the returnees.
Mrs. Buhari-Shehu, who was representing the Managing Director of the ADF, Zouera Youssoufou, noted that ADF will continue to support the government in its humanitarian effort.
One of the returnees, Yusuf Bulama, a student, while receiving the donation was grateful to “Allah for bringing us back home safely. Second, I want to thank Alhaji Aliko Dangote for this huge intervention through the Aliko Dangote Foundation. My message to Dangote is to pray that Allah continues to help him and support his numerous businesses.”
Another beneficiary, Miss Muneerah Abdul expressed appreciation while adding that N100, 000 for each student was a huge sum.
It would be recalled that Aliko Dangote Foundation supported the Nigerian government with logistics support for the Nigerian volunteer health workers who supported the Ebola containment efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone upon their return to the country in 2015. Also, during the recent Covid pandemic, ADF supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai during the outbreak of the pandemic with specially chartered flights and Covid testing and quarantining when they arrived back in Nigeria.
Since 2011, ADF has supported several thousand IDPs in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, and Abuja with a total spending of over N25bn in the provision of food, shelter, and health services.