As intense fighting between Sudan’s military and the country’s paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has alerted the concerned authorities about the plight of about 7000 nationals, including Nigerians, who are stranded at the border between the strife-torn country and Egypt.
The chairman and chief executive officer of the commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, called on those concerned with passage and movement of persons and services to ensure the affected persons have unfettered access to their various destinations.
Spokesman for NiDCOM, Mr. Gabriel Odu, quoted Dabiri-Erewa as saying that over 7000 nationals, including Nigerians, were not being allowed to cross the border into Egypt since their arrival late yesterday (Friday) evening.
She added that The Nigerian Mission in Egypt had been working tirelessly on the matter as the Egyptian authorities were insisting on visas by fellow Africans to transit back to their countries.
She appealed to the Egyptian authorities to kindly allow the already traumatised travellers to transit to their final destinations in various countries in Africa.
Dabiri-Erewa had on Thursday confirmed the arrival of the first set of stranded Nigerians in Sudan at the Aswan border in Egypt.
Confirming the development in a post on Twitter, she had said the border was already closed when the students got there, adding that they would proceed to the airport in the morning.
The federal government had also on Thursday said that the Nigerian Air Force, Air Peace and other airlines had received clearance to fly to Egypt to pick up stranded Nigerians.
This was contained in a joint press release from the ministry of foreign affairs and the federal ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development on the evacuation of Nigerians caught up in the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
“Nigerian Mission in Egypt is liaising with the Egyptian authorities to facilitate the evacuation exercise, by providing emergency entry documents and holding shelters, until the stranded Nigerians are airlifted back to Nigeria.
“The Nigerian Air Force, Air Peace and other Airlines have received clearance to fly to Egypt. The NAF C-130H is scheduled to leave Abuja tomorrow, 28th April, 2023 to commence the airlifting of the evacuees,” the ministries said.
Recall that the clashes between the military and the paramilitaries erupted in the middle of April amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime.
The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to the country’s de facto ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while the paramilitaries of the RSF, a collection of militia, follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the former dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.
A central cause of tension since the 2019 uprising has been the civilian demand for oversight of the military and integration of the RSF into the regular armed forces.
Civilians have also called for the handover of lucrative military holdings in agriculture, trade and other industries – a crucial source of power for an army that has often outsourced military action to regional militias.
When an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats in Khartoum warning in early 2022 that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In the weeks before clashes broke out tensions had risen further.
With agency reports
