Sudan war: 1,500 Nigerians Arrive Abuja Today – FG
The Federal Government says the first batch of Nigerians being evacuated from the crisis-torn Sudan will arrive in Abuja today.
Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja yesterday.
“As I speak to you, we’re expecting about 1,500 Nigerians.
“And also, Air Peace will be leaving tonight (Thursday night) from Nigeria to pick them up from Egypt and bring them back safely to Nigeria by tomorrow (today),” she said.
She said over three million Nigerians were residing in Sudan and efforts were being made to evacuate as many as possible if the war persisted, adding that priority would be on children, students and women.
She said: “All in all, 13 buses have departed for Aswan border in Egypt where they’ll be received by the Nigerian Ambassador there and the Director-General of NEMA, Habib Ahmed, who is already there with some officials.”
Speaking yesterday on Sunrise Daily, a Channels TV programme, Dabiri-Erewa, said universities in Nigeria had made offers to admit Nigerian students returning from Sudan.
Drivers of the first batch of five buses conveying Nigerian students that left Khartoum on Wednesday abandoned them in the desert for hours over issues relating to payments.
However, the National Emergency Management Agency said all issues had been resolved.
Some parents of the involved students, who received their WhatsApp audio and video messages, shared same with Daily Trust.
A 400-level student of the International University of Africa, Khartoum, said the 38 hours scheduled journey between Khartoum in Sudan, and the neighboring Egyptian city of Aswan, had encountered a challenge.
“The bus drivers have told us that their company had demanded them to stop the journey until the balance payment of their service had been paid.
According to the student, the drivers insisted that they were only paid 30 per cent of the agreed charges, with the promise of paying the remaining balance once they got out of the state capital, Khartoum.
“We’re yet to eat anything since the journey started from Khartoum around 5pm Wednesday,” she added.
Another female student, in a video message, along with fellow male counterparts, said they had so far spent about five hours in the desert, with no money or anything left in their possession.
‘Issues have been resolved’
Franca Omayuli, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the video of stranded Nigerians abandoned in the desert was not the true reflection of the situation as the government was on course to evacuate all stranded Nigerians from Sudan in a dignified manner.
Similarly, the spokesman of the NEMA, Ezekiel Monzo, said it was wrong for the travelers to complain of lack of food, adding that arrangements were made for their feeding.
He assured that the evacuees would arrive in Nigeria today.
