Crimes

FG sets up committee to evacuate Nigerians from Sudan

The Federal Government has set up a committee to evacuate Nigerians stranded in Sudan over the current crisis in the country.

Fighting broke out in Sudan on April 8, 2023, between the country’s two most powerful generals and their respective military units.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the conflict between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary group, Rapid Support Force, has claimed over 413 lives and more than 3,500 have been injured since the fighting began.

The airport in the capital Khartoum has been at the centre of the fighting and was therefore inaccessible.

The Federal Government (FG), while speaking through the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Friday, said it was difficult to evacuate Nigerians stranded in the North African country.

It stated that the tensed situation in Sudan makes it risky and impossible to evacuate stranded Nigerians from the country, noting that aircraft parked at the airport in the nation were burnt.

However, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), in a statement issued on Saturday, April 22, by its Head of Press Unit, Manzo Ezekiel, stated that a search and rescue committee has been set up to work towards evacuating Nigerians stranded in the embattled country.

NEMA said the committee, which consists of professional emergency responders, search and rescue experts, “will constantly evaluate the situation and seek for the safest way to evacuate the Nigerian citizens even if it is through a country neighbouring Sudan.”

It noted: “The attention of the National Emergency Management Agency is drawn to the widespread public concern on the situation in Sudan, especially in regards to the ongoing conflict and the safety as well as well-being of stranded Nigerian citizens, including hundreds of students in various universities of the country.

“It has become necessary to inform the public that NEMA is in constant communication with all relevant partners, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and security agencies, while seeking an appropriate window of opportunity to evacuate all stranded Nigerians back home in a safe and dignified manner.

“The current emergency situation in Sudan is very complex with fighting between warring factions going on and all airports and land borders closed. NEMA is working assiduously with all its partners and is constantly compiling updated information on the situation,” NEMA noted.

Also speaking, the NEMA Director-General, Mustapha Ahmed, said the agency was very much concerned about the conflict in Sudan and the conditions of Nigerians there.

Ahmed the emergency agency was working on all possible options of bringing the stranded Nigerians back home to their loved ones in a safe and dignified manner.

The Star had, on Saturday, reported that Sudan’s de facto president and commander-in-chief of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has agreed to the evacuation of citizens and diplomatic representatives from the embattled country.

An army spokesman, in a statement on Saturday, said the United States, Britain, France, and China would begin evacuating from the capital Khartoum “in the coming hours” using military transport aircraft.

The Star