Sudan Crisis: First Batch Of Stranded Nigerians Expected Today
There are indications that a number of Nigerian evacuees from crisis-torn Sudan may arrive in Nigeria today.
Nigerian authorities have refused to announce any date of the evacuees’ arrival.
However, developments in Egypt and Port Sudan have indicated that the first batch of Nigerian evacuees may arrive either in Abuja or Lagos today.
The evacuees, who left Khartoum last Wednesday and had been stranded at the Egyptian border for six days finally got the nod of the Egyptian authorities on Monday to proceed on their journey.
The Egyptian authorities will, however, only allow into the country the number of available seats in the aircraft in line with the MoU signed with Nigeria.
However, while waiting for the permission of the Egyptian authorities, many of the buses offloaded the evacuees’ luggage and zoomed off.
The students at Arqin said their travel documents were collected and were processed yesterday, in preparation for their movement to Egypt.
A student in one of the buses moving from Arqin where they had been for days, yesterday said: “We’re approaching the Egyptian border now. In fact, we’re inside Egypt. We’ll move soon to Aswan.”
They are to be airlifted back to Nigeria at Aswan as at least two aircraft are on the ground waiting for their arrival.
The stranded Nigerians at Wadi Halfa have not commenced movement to Egypt yet, according to Daily Trust findings.
A Nigerian government official, who does not want to be named, said: “We’re dealing with about 2,000 people. An official is there (with the stranded evacuees). He’s sorting the exit for all with the list.
“They just finished paying $25 each, and 9 dollars exit fees. Once done, they’ll take them to the Egypt border. The condition given is that we can only come up with the number the plane can take. No loitering around.”
One of the evacuees said it would take between five to six hours to travel by road from where they were to Aswan.
The second set of evacuees, who took the Port Sudan route where they are expected to connect to Jedda through the sea, arrived at the port Tuesday afternoon, but they are not sure of when they will continue their journey.
One of them, Hamid Al-Hassan Hamid, shared a picture of a dilapidated building where they are lodged as they await the next instructions from the Nigerian government.
He stated: “We finally came to Port Sudan this afternoon after being stranded for a day and some hours.
“This is where we’re now, no food, not even water. Yet they keep telling the world that they used 10,000 dollars to feed people.
“I’m not sure when we’ll be leaving Port Sudan, and they’ve not told us anything yet.”
Capturing the video of the hostel, he said: “The ladies are in another hostel, very similar if not exactly the same.
“This is going to be our toilet in the next days, weeks, months, and whatnot. This is the best Nigerian Embassy in Sudan can offer with a $1.2m evacuation allocation.”
A source in Sudan, Mo Sani Aliyu, said the nine Nigerian students, who slept at the RSF checkpoint after their bus caught fire on Monday, had all arrived at Port Sudan.
“They joined another bus sent by the transport company, which left nine places for them in the bus,” he said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives will meet Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyema, officials of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the National Emergency Management Agency to ascertain the condition of Nigerians trapped by the conflict in Sudan.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila stated this in an address at the resumed plenary on Tuesday.
He said, “Over the last few weeks, the Republic of Sudan has descended into war. Unfortunately, this rapid descent into the carnage of violent conflict has entrapped many Nigerians resident in that country.
“Efforts are underway to ensure that our citizens resident in the Republic of Sudan, as students, business people and in other vocations, are evacuated quickly and safely.
“The House is aware of ongoing difficulties with the evacuation efforts and the federal government’s response to the developments in the Republic of Sudan”.
