Sudan: FG Awaits Permission From Warring Parties To Evacuate Nigerians – Abike

The chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said that the federal government is waiting to get the permission of the military on both sides of the conflict in Sudan before moving Nigerians out of the war zone by road.

She made this known in an interview on Monday with BBC Africa.

According to Dabiri-Erewa, the permission is needed to ensure safe passage for Nigerians who are in their thousands.

“Now, here is the thing, why are we waiting? Because we must ensure that we get the permission of the military on both sides. Now, we have a large number of Nigerian students, we’re talking of thousands, nothing less than 3,500 that are stranded there so we’re conveying them in a whole lot of buses. Imagine seeing 10 buses without any security, you’re putting them in harm’s way,” she said.

“So we want to ensure that there’s safety and security, so by tomorrow morning, we believe that they’ll now go en route to Egypt and get to two borders there and they’ll be in a safe location to return home.

“Our ministry of foreign affairs has contacted both sides of the divide and we have asked for a safe corridor for our students and that means to give us security,” she said.

She expressed optimism that evacuation is likely to start Tuesday.

“We are hoping that by tomorrow, the first set of buses will be leaving Khartoum heading toward some borders in Cairo…to evacuate the first set to a safe place where we can now airlift them back home to Nigeria.

“So, as soon as the buses are ready, like I said, most likely by tomorrow morning, they will convey them safely and that is the keyword,” she said.

On Sunday, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had revealed that going by road out of Sudan was the only option because flights are grounded in the country.