The government of Nigeria has commenced the evacuation of about 5,500 Nigerians stranded in Sudan amid fighting in the country.
Development Diaries reports that the government, through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), released the sum of N150m for hiring 40 buses to facilitate the repatriation.
In a post on her Twitter handle, the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the money was paid to an undisclosed transport company on Tuesday.
Dabiri-Erewa tweeted an update on Wednesday morning.
As our students in Sudan queued up orderly to board their buses to Egypt enroute to Nigeria, supervised by Nigerian mission officials in Sudan. Let’s remember them in our prayers as they journey home. War is a terrible thing !! pic.twitter.com/Y29nOFYmCX
— Abike Dabiri-Erewa (@abikedabiri) April 26, 2023
Tensions in Sudan escalated after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started deploying members around the country and in Khartoum without the expressed permission of the army.
About 100,000 Sudanese have reportedly fled their homes as the near-constant shooting and bombing in Khartoum and elsewhere has cut electricity and safe access to food and water for much of the population.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama, had earlier mentioned that the only option remaining for Nigerians to be evacuated out of Sudan was through land. According to him, this was because the airport in the capital, Khartoum, had been shut.
It is unfortunate that the usual response of the foreign ministry in cases of crisis like this is to wait until the dying minutes before action is taken to rescue Nigerian nationals.
The foreign ministry can actually do better in terms of proactive steps to take in making sure Nigerians are safe abroad when there is a crisis, rather than criticising them on media platforms.
The first step of a country should be towards the protection of its citizens wherever they are located.
Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides that the government is primarily responsible for the security and welfare of its people, hence Nigerians in other countries should also be protected.
Development Diaries, therefore, calls on the foreign affairs ministry and the agencies it is working with to quicken the process of evacuation to ensure all Nigerians are safe.
We also urge the ministry to incorporate a department that deals solely with emergencies like this, so that proactive action can be taken by the department whenever necessary.
Photo source: Reuters
