NEMA has confirmed plans to the evacuate over 2,000 Nigerians in Khartoum, the capital of crisis-plagued Sudan.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed plans to the evacuate over 2,000 Nigerians in Khartoum, the capital of crisis-plagued Sudan.
This was disclosed by the NEMA Director, Special Duties, Onimode Bandele, during a live appearance Monday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“It is true that there are plans to get buses to start moving tomorrow morning. And as I speak to you, the Director General, National Emergency Management Agency, Mustapha Habib, is already in Cairo because that is the window that we are looking at”, he said.
According to him, the movement is to be perfected between the Nigerian embassy in Khartoum and the NEMA director general.
Asked how many Nigerians to be removed from the troubled North African country, Bandele stated that evacuation of a few thousand citizens is in the works.
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“Our projection was that most students and others who want to evacuate are about 5,000. But with my discussion with the ambassador this morning, the plan is for about 2,650-2,800 to move immediately, including families of embassy staff.
“As these plans continue, we’ll be able to update you with the actual figure and the exact time of departure from Khartoum to Cairo,” he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, on Sunday, put that the number of Nigerians in Sudan at 5,500.
He explained that out of the number, 80 percent of them are students, adding that some countries had only evacuated their diplomatic staff and not all of their citizens as speculated online.
Onyeama urged Nigerians in the crisis-torn country to stay at their places of domicile before the evacuation begins.
“Essentially, where we are at the moment is trying to get authorisation from the Sudanese government to undertake this long convoy journey and for them to provide some security,” he added.
The Federal Government had before now, disclosed that plans were underway to see to the evacuation of Nigerians in Sudan.
This move was occasioned by a request made by Nigerian students pleading that they be evacuated from the troubled country. Following the escalation of crisis in Sudan, many countries are putting up arrangements to repatriate their nationals out of the country. The UK army has completed the evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan amid ongoing fighting.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed the evacuation on Sunday, saying there had been a “significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff”.
In apparent show of concern, Pope Francis has called for dialogue between warring military factions. The catholic Pontiff, who made the observation in his Sunday prayers in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, lamented that the situation remains grave in Sudan, stressing; “That is why I am renewing my call for the violence to stop as quickly as possible and for dialogue to resume”.
The violence was prompted by clashes between the forces of two generals: Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on Saturday, April 15, thousands have fled the capital, Khartoum and over 500 civilians reportedly killed.
The confusion followed a bitter dispute between Burhan and Daglo over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army — a key condition for a final deal aimed at resuming Sudan’s democratic transition. The two warlords played key roles in a 2021 coup that ousted a transition council in the country.