Kazeem Owoseni
A viral video showing stranded Nigerian citizens in war-ravaged Sudan, waiting to be evacuated by the Nigerian government has surfaced on social media.
It would be recalled that Punch Metro had reported on Monday that many Nigerians were trapped in Sudan, following the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group, Rapid Support Force, and the Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, said he was willing to evacuate the stranded Nigerians from the country.
The conflict between the country’s armed forces and RSF has claimed over 400 lives with about 3,500 injured people, recorded.
The conflict, which started on April 8, 2023, has also displaced thousands of civilians, who fled the capital, Khartoum, as the violence lingers, even after fourteen days.
Meanwhile, Nigeria and some other countries, revealed that they have initiated plans to evacuate their citizens to safety.
However, the Chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has noted that there is an ongoing plan to ensure Nigerian nationals are evacuated on Wednesday morning.
In her response to a series of tweets, asking what her commission and other relevant institutions were doing to ensure Nigerians in Sudan were safely returned home, the NIDCOM boss stated that the National Emergency Management Agency has sorted all payments required, to complete the evacuation, but stated that some logistics are yet to be sorted out.
According to the NIDCOM boss, evacuating nationals in a war situation, is safer and better done, early in the morning.
“They are still in Khartoum. @nemanigeria has sorted all payments etc but there are still a few logistical delays.
“They will likely proceed early morning. Safer to leave early morning. A war situation is not a normal situation. We are all anxiously waiting to receive them,” she wrote.
