The Federal Government has set in motion the process of evacuating back home Nigerians who are currently stranded in war-torn Sudan.
About 4,000 Nigerian students are trapped in the country where a bloody confrontation between loyalists of the de facto President and Commander-In-Chief of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and those of his rival and former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, have claimed at least 418 lives in the last one week.
No fewer than a million other Nigerians reside permanently there.
The Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum is said to have started compiling the names of those willing to leave the troubled country.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has also announced the setting up of a committee to work out ways of evacuating the Nigerians.
The compilation of the names, it was gathered, would guide the government in determining the kind of plane to send for the operation.
Almost all the airports have been closed on account of the fighting.
“One thing about evacuation is the fact that not everybody would want to leave, and that is why dedicated phone numbers were given for contact,” a source knowledgeable about the evacuation plan said.
“But I can tell you that the process is already on and people have started submitting names for evacuation.”
The source said the current window for evacuation for now is 72 hours.
“However, the government is exploring every way to ensure the safety of Nigerians in Sudan,” the source said.
Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa said the evacuation was delayed because of the high level of insecurity in the country with several aircraft already burnt by the fighting troops.
NIDCOM spokesman, Gabriel Odu quoted Dabiri-Erewa as saying even humanitarian groups are seeking ways of getting food, water, and medicals across to people.
She said: “While the Nigerian Mission in Sudan and NEMA have put in place arrangements to evacuate Nigerian students and other Nigerian citizens stranded in Sudan, the tensed situation makes it gravely risky and impossible for any flights at this point in time.”
Al-Burhan confirmed on Saturday that he was open to the evacuation of citizens and diplomatic representatives from the embattled country.
A Saudi Arabian delegation has already been evacuated from the eastern city of Port Sudan, he said, while a Jordanian delegation was due to be flown out of Port Sudan on Saturday night.
NEMA said in Abuja that the committee comprising professional emergency responders, search and rescue experts is saddled with the responsibility of constantly evaluating the situation and seeking the safest way to evacuate the trapped Nigerians.
It did not rule out evacuation through any of Sudan’s neighbouring countries.
Spokesman for the agency, Manzo Ezekiel said it was in constant communication with all relevant partners including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, and security agencies to find the best approach to the planned evacuation.
It, however, noted that the current emergency in Sudan is very complex with fighting between warring factions going on and all airports and land borders closed.
“NEMA is working assiduously with all its partners and is constantly compiling updated information on the situation,” he said.
He quoted NEMA Director General, Mustapha Ahmed as saying that the agency was on top of the situation and “working on all possible options” to bring home the stranded Nigerians in a safe and dignified manner.
The Federal Government’s plan came as the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) urged the immediate evacuation of stranded Nigerians in Sudan.
National President of AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima said in Kaduna that the excuse from the Nigerian Embassy that it would be difficult to evacuate the citizens was unacceptable.
He said the AYCF would hold the Nigerian Embassy accountable should any harm come upon the Nigerians, especially those schooling in the country.
Yerima said: “As concerned Nigerians who are very uncomfortable with the fate of Nigerians trapped in Sudan due to ongoing war and killings, we feel duty bound to unequivocally state our final stand on this bloodshed and arson.
“It is totally unacceptable that while several countries were evacuating their citizens from Sudan, ours is the only African nation giving excuses.
“With thousands of Nigerians in Sudan, especially male and female Northern students being the majority, we reject the lame excuse given in a letter by the Nigeria Embassy about the difficulty of evacuating our sons and daughters. No Northerner in this country is at peace since the killings and arson started in Sudan.
“We are aware that the Sudanese government had already warned that the situation would escalate, and gave a 72-hour ultimatum for countries whose citizens are either doing business or schooling in that country to be evacuated.
“We cannot fathom why all we get at the moment is the excuse by our Embassy that doing so would be difficult. What held us from taking advantage of the 72 hours ultimatum in the first place?
“It is abundantly clear that lives are now at stake, especially for our Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan, considering the escalation of this war that involves the use of heavy-duty incendiary.
“As a group, we wish to make it categorically clear that if our innocent Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan get killed in this war, we shall hold the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan accountable.
“We wish to emphasize that on no account should these young and innocent Nigerians be left to their own devices because they have a fatherland that has the constitutional and legal responsibility to protect the lives of citizens anywhere they are on this planet.”
One of the stranded Nigerian students, Hussein Musa Yusuf, told Daily Trust on phone that the fighting had caused scarcity of water, food, electricity, and other basic amenities.
Yusuf, a native indigene of Kano State, spoke of the danger they were exposed to if they were not quickly repatriated because they had no access to health centres and pharmacies.
He was quoted as saying: “Many students are stranded in their hostels and houses without basic needs of life such as food, water, and electricity.
“Presently, there is no access to hospitals and pharmacies. There is a risk if they go out because there is shooting and civilian casualties have been recorded.”
Stranded British-Sudanese doctor: :I’m tired. I’m just really, really tired.”
A British-Sudanese doctor who got stuck in the country while visiting family to celebrate the Eid al Fitri narrated her ordeal to CNN.
She said: “I’m tired. I’m just really, really tired. Exhausted is the right word for it; burnt out. There’s just so much adrenaline.
“We were happy about the 24-hour ceasefire [earlier in the week], which was extended, not because there actually was a ceasefire, but there was space out between the attacks.
“[On Thursday] we all just felt really tired, we were still fasting in the midst of all of this, and everybody’s sentiment was Ramadan just has to come to an end.
“I prepared supper, made some sunny-side-up eggs, trying to make something nice out of a can of tuna. I tried to moisten some stale bread.
“Very late at night, we heard, I don’t know what they were, missiles maybe?
“My dad has quite limited mobility because he’s sick. He’s been lying sleeping on this sofa bed. We just had to just push him from the living room where he has been sleeping to a safer area where there was a wall covering rather than just windows.
“My cousin is also with us. My daughter was absolutely mortified and just inconsolable. My 96-year-old grandmother was in a room behind the place we were sheltering in. She could hear the shelling, she can feel the shaking, the sound coming into the house but I downplayed it for her. My mother was there as well. My sister.
“We also have with us domestic helpers. There’s one from Kenya. She’s not Muslim so I started reading the Lord’s Prayer with her. I thought maybe it will bring her some solace and reassurance to know that she’s not alone.
“We also have a couple of Ethiopian house helpers, and they were very scared. I kept thinking to myself, these poor people, they flee their countries to come to a place like Sudan, far from their families, to make money to send to them or to go to a safer place and this is what happens to them. It just seems so, so unfair.
“I think there were two or three very, very loud thuds that were very close to the house. We just started reading [the] Quran, praying that we were going to be safe trying to calm the children. I wish I was an octopus so [I] have more hands, hands, and arms to put around people just to hug them.
“[Friday] has been a blur. I didn’t hear any of the Eid calls to prayers, which is one of the things that usually fills me with a lot of joy. It’s one of the main reasons I came from the UK because I just wanted to have a nice fast with family and here it is. All the Eid clothes are in the bag. The nail polish, the hair stuff. I didn’t even put my mascara on. So it’s a really sad day.
“A lot of people are fleeing. There are a lot of people offering places on buses to go to Egypt. Ours is a logistical nightmare. It’s a big family and each person or each group of people or household has different requirements. Moving [my grandmother] is not going to be like moving my eight-year-old nephew.
“My brother’s daughter has certain health needs. She needs access to certain medications. My mother, my father, my grandmother, and my sister, they also would all feel very poorly, or maybe not even survive if they don’t have their medications.
“We try to be positive. We try to play games, and we try to watch movies, but our attention span has just completely gone. No one can sit and watch a movie.
“I focus on the good stuff: we have oil, we have electricity, we have running water because the water tank is working. We have cars in the driveway but no petrol for them.
“I’m avoiding the news. Statements by both parties seem to have the same author: I am your savior and victor. I know they are both untruthful, manipulative, bloodthirsty men with no regard for the dignity nor lives of the people they are paid to serve and protect.”
As of yesterday, the army was in control of all airports in the country except those in Khartoum and the town of Njala in the South Darfur region
Al-Burhan told Arabic television station Al-Arabiya that he remained in control of the army and would only let his rival Daglo, the leader of the powerful paramilitary group RSF, get away “in a coffin.”
Fighting broke out in Sudan about a week ago between the country’s two most powerful generals and their respective military units.
According to the World Health Organisation, at least 413 people have lost their lives and more than 3,500 have been injured since the fighting began.
The airport in the capital Khartoum has been at the centre of the fighting and was therefore inaccessible. Diplomats have been trying for days to secure a resilient ceasefire for the evacuation of foreign citizens.
After a brief ceasefire on Friday due to the Eid al-Fitri, fighting continued overnight.
On Saturday morning, Khartoum was bombed again, a reporter at the scene told the German Press agency DPA. Shots rang out in the city, and witnesses writing on Twitter reported explosions in the capital.
The ceasefire largely held during the night, the reporter said. There were only “sporadic clashes.”
The United States embassy in Khartoum said on Saturday that the ongoing fighting and closure of the airport in the capital made it currently impossible to evacuate U.S. citizens.
The embassy continues to closely monitor the situation in Khartoum and surrounding areas, it said in a statement.
Apart from the fighting between the rival forces, there are currently reports of attacks, home invasions, and looting.
In addition, the embassy has received incomplete information about convoys travelling from Khartoum toward Port Sudan, it said.
It added that it was not in a position to support convoys, meaning passengers travelled at their own risk, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast on bringing back the stranded Nigerians from Sudan.
In a statement on Saturday, NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero said: “Nigerians must not be allowed to die in Sudan because of negligence.”
No effort, according to him, should be spared in ensuring their safety and ultimately evacuation to Nigeria if the situation persists and escalates into a full-blown war.
He added: “It remains the duty of the government and we urge the Federal Government to make this happen unless they want to tell us that these lives are not as important as the lives of the children of those in authority and does not deserve to be protected.”
He said the NLC was worried because “many Nigerians have become unwitting victims of the war and are stranded in that country and unable to get out.
“They have cried out for help to escape the horrors which the war has continued to mete out to persons still trapped in Sudan.”
