The federal government has said Egyptian authorities are deliberately and unreasonably frustrating efforts to evacuate stranded Nigerians from war-torn Sudan despite all entreaties.
The federal government made this revelation at a press briefing on Sunday evening organised by the Situation Room comprising the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigeria in Diaspora Commission (NiDCom), among other agencies.
Speaking at the briefing, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said many Nigerians have so far been evacuated to the Egyptian border, but that the Egyptian authorities were not allowing them entry despite clearance.
He said though the Sudan authorities hitherto charged eight dollars for Nigerians to exit the country, while the federal government of Nigeria was charged 25 dollars by Egyptian authorities for each visa for the stranded Nigerians, they were still not allowed into Egypt for no known reason.
He said there is no amount of money that would quantify the value the federal government has placed on lives of Nigerians in Sudan, hence the government is committed to ensuring that all the identified 5,500 stranded citizens are evaluated and brought back to the country through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Ethiopia and other countries they succeeded to escape into.
He revealed that other countries have requested Nigeria to help in evacuating their citizens, a request he said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved of and would be granted in the course of the evaluation of Nigerians.
He lamented that many Nigerians have been left stranded at the Egyptian border for three days, which has made it difficult for more Nigerians to be evaluated to the same border as those already evacuated to the border are prevented by the Egyptian authorities of being cleared for airlifting.
He, however, said the federal government is doing everything possible to dialogue with the Egyptian authorities to resolve whatever issue that is preventing the Egyptian authorities from issuing visas to the Nigerians who have so far made it to the border.
“We already have 31 buses carrying 49 passengers each, that is 1,519 people. Movement in Sudan is tricky, so Nigerians should be kind in their remarks, especially on social media. It might interest you to know that the ceasefire has been extended by another 72 hours, so we will continue to do our best to ensure that all Nigerians are evacuated and brought back into the country. We are dealing with an abnormal situation in Sudan and things change with every passing minute, but this is the situation of things at the moment,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Sudan, Safiu Olaniyan, has given an update on the situation in the war-torn country.
The envoy gave the update while reacting to allegations levelled against the embassy.
In a voice note, the ambassador assured parents and students that the embassy officials were fully on ground in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, to ensure their evacuation.
“Good afternoon my fellow Nigerians. My name is Ambassador Olaniyan. I’m reaching out to you at this point on the issue of buses that’s creating tension everywhere.
“I just want to let you know that the embassy is not in charge of the bus contracts. We’ve not received any money from anybody to hire buses. We are arranging the logistics.
“Those who are arranging the buses are the ministry of humanitarian affairs in Nigeria, as well as NEMA. So our own is to get the necessary instructions that this and this has been arranged and we just give instructions to the students to meet at so-and-so place and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
