Sudan: FG begins evacuation of stranded Nigerians

The first batch of 2,800 stranded Nigerians in Sudan is expected to arrive today, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday.

A domestic carrier air peace had volunteered to evacuate citizens from the crisis-ridden country.

NEMA said the evacuation will be done via road from Khartoum to Cairo in Egypt.

Among those to be brought home are students, embassy staff and their families.

Director of Special Duties of NEMA, Dr. Onimode Bandele, who spoke on Channels, said nobody has been evacuated yet.

“I just spoke to Ambassador Olaniyan in Khartoum. There are plans to get buses to start movement tomorrow morning (today).

Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, is already in Cairo.

as confirmed by the ambassador, it is guaranteed that movement by road will start tomorrow (today).”

On the numbers to be evacuated, he said: “They are about 5,000 but the plan is for about 2,650 to 2,800 to move immediately, including families of embassy staff.

“As plans continue, the figures will be updated and the exact time of departure from Khartoum to Cairo will also be communicated.”

Bandele said the number to be moved will depend on available buses.

“If you are evacuating in a situation of internal crisis as we have in Sudan, you have to be mindful of the number of buses in your convoy so you can easily manage it security-wise,” he said.

On why it has taken Nigeria this long to move the people out, he said: “It was not safe for anybody to start any movement and there was a total lockdown.

It was just some few days ago that they got the window to move, but they still have to tread softly because we don’t know what the situation might be.

“As much as we feel the pains of our citizens, we should do it right so that we don’t have casualties on our side.

“We are aware that some of the students self-evacuated to the border, about ten of them.

The ambassador in Ethiopia has sent a note to the government of Ethiopia to allow the citizens to pass through their country.

“As of yesterday (Sunday) night, we spoke and efforts are still ongoing.