The evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Sudan will commence on Wednesday, NewsSpecng learnt.
The Federal Government concluded an arrangement to evacuate about 5,500 Nigerians, including students stranded in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan.
A sum of N150m was released for hiring 40 buses to convey them to Cairo in Egypt.
The money was paid to an undisclosed transport company on Tuesday at 12:37 pm by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the National Emergency Management Agency.
A copy of the receipt obtained by our correspondent showed that the N150m was paid on Tuesday at 12:37 pm for the purpose of the Sudan evacuation. The funding bank was the Central Bank of Nigeria through NEMA.
In a letter dated April 23, 2023, signed by the Charge D’ Affairs, Nigerian Embassy in Sudan, Haruna Garko, the mission requested 200 buses to convey 3,500 students from Khartoum to Cairo.
According to the payment receipt the Federal Government through NEMA transferred N150m to one Abubakar Ali through Jaiz Bank for the transportation of the beleaguered citizens.
The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed on Tuesday that the payment had been made, noting that the evacuees would take off on Wednesday morning.
Giving an update on the evacuation process via her official Twitter handle on Tuesday evening, the NiDCOM Chairman, Dabiri-Erewa, said, “They are still in Khartoum.@nemanigeria has sorted all payments etc but there are still a few logistical delays. They will likely proceed early in the morning. Safer to leave early in the morning. A war situation is not a normal situation. We are all anxiously waiting to receive them.
“Some logistics issues but all sorted out now by @nemanigeria but advisable to take off in the early morning rather than late afternoon.”
The evacuation is taking place against the backdrop of the three-day ceasefire starting midnight Tuesday declared by the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Force.
Foreign countries are taking advantage of the temporary suspension of hostilities to move their nationals from Sudan as deadly fighting between the two forces entered the second week.
The clashes broke out between erstwhile allies, General Abdel al-Burha, who heads the Sudanese Armed Forces and leader of the RSF paramilitary group, General Mohamed Dagalo, over a power-sharing disagreement.
The conflict had so far claimed about 500 lives with thousands of others injured and millions displaced.
Foreigners are also fleeing the capital Khartoum in a long-United Nations convoy, while millions of frightened residents hunkered down inside their homes, many running low on water and food.
The Director of the Special Duties, National Emergency Management Agency, who doubles as Chairman of NEMA’s Committee for the Evacuation of the Stranded Nigerians from Sudan, Dr Onimode Bandele, had said the government met with government officials in Egypt on how to move Nigerians through Luxor.
Bandele, who advised Nigerians against self-evacuation, said such an arrangement was risky.
“Whatever you meet is your headache, because you did not listen to the authorities that are supposed to cater for you,” he had warned Nigerians.
In a message sent to parents, the embassy explained the challenges it was facing in its efforts to bring back their wards and children.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation’s representative in Sudan, Dr Nima Abid, on Tuesday, said the ongoing violent conflict between the Sudanese military and the RSF had claimed at least 459 lives and injured 4,072 others as of April 24.
Joining a UN press briefing in Geneva by video, Abid said, however, that the figures were probably “very much underestimated.”
The WHO also confirmed 14 attacks on healthcare facilities since the start of the fighting.
According to AFP, fighters have occupied a national public laboratory in Sudan holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation.
Fighters “kicked out all the technicians from the lab… which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” Abid said.
He did not say which of the fighting parties had taken over the laboratory.
Abid said he had received a call from the head of the national laboratory in Khartoum on Monday, a day before a United States-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals officially came into effect after 10 days of urban combat.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, has appreciated the Chairman of Air Peace Airline, Chief Allen Onyema, for accepting to airlift the majority of over 5,500 Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
Obi saluted the courage of the airline boss in a tweet via his official Twitter handle on Tuesday night.
