The federal government has ended the evacuation of all Nigerian students and others stranded in Sudan and formally closed down the situation room set up to handle the emergency.
The permanent secretary, federal ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, disclosed this yesterday.
He announced that 2, 518 Nigerians consisting mostly students were taken out of the crisis-ravaged Northeast African country.
“Following the outbreak of war in the republic of Sudan, Nigerians like any other country’s citizen found themselves trapped and stranded in the middle of the crisis and the federal government gave us the assignment to put in place mechanisms to ensure that every Nigerian that needs to be brought back home, must be brought back home alive and safe and in dignity.
“These three words, (alive, safe and in dignity), kept recurring in our discussions and I am happy to say that we have achieved all those three so you can clearly understand the magnitude of the assignment.
“All Nigerian students that were stranded in Sudan, have been brought back home safely to Nigeria alive.
“Some were sick, six, and we had to take them to hospitals, I am happy to say that they have all been discharged except for one who will require some follow up.
“I am happy to say that we have achieved all these. All Nigerian students that are stranded
“This is a very important milestone in this assignment that we have been given. I call it a milestone because we still have some journey left but I must say that we have reached a very critical point and I important point in the journey, so far the assignment given to us.
“They came back in dignity, many of them are already reunited with their families,” he said.
The permanent secretary further said although were some Nigerians who could not make it back due lack of identification papers and identity cards among others, the Nigerian mission was working to resolve such cases and bring all those identified to Nigeria.
“The situation room will be formally closed today, (yesterday), and that takes us through a transition process that will leave behind a standby team that will continue to respond to any emergency that will arise
“We also have a mop-up mechanism where any Nigerian that is found in need of help in that country can be brought back home, (to Nigeria).
“The last flight that came to Nigeria was the 15th flight, with the last one arriving at the weekend and that gave us a total figure of returnees of 2, 518, majority of them are students and they are all back and safe,” he added.
Sani-Gwarzo also noted that there were still some Nigerians who were left behind.
“Because there are several categories of Nigerians that are resident in Sudan, there are people that are recent travellers who wanted to come home and we have evacuated them. There are people that have been in Sudan for several years dating back some to hundreds of years. So for this category, we have a committee screening them in Port Sudan and they will be brought back home too,” he said.
He stated that the evacuation team had spread word to all those left behind in Sudan and other border towns to head to Port Sudan where Nigerian officials are on hand to render assistance.
“We have sent word through all our contacts even across border towns like Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, N’Djamena, Chad, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Juba, South Sudan and others,” Sani-Gwarzo said.
