Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed on Sunday disclosed that no Nigerian died during the ongoing war in Sudan, just as he confirmed the evacuation of all willing Nationals back into the country.
Mr. Ahmed stated this in Abuja while giving an update on the evacuation of stranded Nigerian Citizens from war-torn Sudan back to Nigeria, which the Agency and other stakeholders undertook under the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari through the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq in line with the mandate of the Agency to evacuate Nigerians in distress abroad back home safety and in a dignified manner.
He said: “As you are aware, the crisis in Sudan began on the 15th April 2023 as a result of rivalry between factions of the military Government in Sudan, necessitating the need to evacuate our citizens that were caught up by the unfortunate situation.
“On receiving directive from the President, NEMA swung into action by identifying the safest route to evacuate our citizens in safety and dignity. Egypt was identified and an advance team led by myself, the Director General, some NEMA staff and stakeholders immediately travelled there where we engaged with the Nigerian Mission in that country and secured approval for use the airport in Aswan for airlift of our citizens across the border from Sudan.
“Consequently, arrangements were made, local transporters were engaged to move our citizens from Khartoum through to the border town of Argeen and Wadi Halfa. Negotiations for the transportation were done under tensed and conflict circumstances, but we thank God that we were able to succeed in engaging several buses for movement of first batch of our citizens out of danger to the Egyptian border.
“However, with the experience of the diplomatic requirements that caused some delays in their movement across the borders to Aswan, a decision was taken that the remaining Nigerians desirous of evacuation back from Khartoum should be rerouted to Port Sudan from where they were airlifted to Abuja.
“A total of 23 sick evacuees were recerved. Out of these, 13 were treated on arrival by officials of NEMA, Port Health and other medical personnel within the airport, while 13 were referred to 108 Nigerian Airforce hospital Abuja Among these was a day old Baby who was delivered while the mother was awaiting evacuation at Port Sudan.
“The baby is currently being treated for jaundice at the University of Abuja Teachng Hospital Gwagwalada patient with hand injury is being treated at Federal Medical centee Jabi Abuja.
“We thank God Almighty that no life of any Nigerian was lost in the crisis so far and during the evacuation.
According to him, the 15th flight yesterday marks the conclusion of evacuation of the stranded students that were profiled for airlift back home.
Mr. Ahmed who expressed delight over the successful completion of the evacuation exercise, he showered encomium on the Chairman of Air Peace Ltd, Mr. Allen Onyeama for the bold decision to evacuate the Nigerian returnees for free from Aswan Egypt.
“I equally thank Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who through his Dangote foundation gave tokens of N100,000 and dignity packs to each of the returnees.
“Equally, I thank MTN foundation for giving the retumees free sim Cards and airtime worth N25,000 and 1.5 gigabyte data.”
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