The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reiterated its commitment to evacuate Nigerians stranded in Sudan. The Agency Director-General, Mr Mustapha Ahmed said in a statement released on Saturday to the public by Mr Manzo Ezekiel, Head of the Press Department in Abuja.
NEMA has set up a commission that is already working on all options to ensure the safe return of Nigerians. Especially students in various universities, from conflict-torn Sudan, he said.
The Committee is made up of professional first responders, and search and rescue experts. They constantly assess the situation and recommend the safest evacuation approach.
“It has become necessary to inform the public that NEMA is constantly communicating with all relevant partners including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and security agencies.
“While seeking for an appropriate window of opportunity to evacuate all stranded Nigerians back home in a safe and dignified manner.
“The current emergency situation in Sudan is very complex with fighting between waring factions going on and all airports and land boarders closed,” he said.
He assured Nigerians that NEMA was working assiduously with all its partners.
They are also constantly compiling updated information on the situation. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that clashes erupted amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of Sudan’s military regime.
The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. However, the para militaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militia, follow Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The latter is a former warlord who is popularly known as Hemedti.
The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar Al-Bashir. Bashir had built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.
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 recent weeks, tensions have risen further. The UN said no fewer than 180 people have been killed and another 1,800 injured in three days of fighting between the rival factions in Sudan. In light of all these, NEMA is doing their best to assist stranded Nigerians.
cc: NAN
