Sudan Crisis – Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, has revealed that for the time being, the only viable option for evacuating Nigerians stranded in war-torn Sudan is by road.
Onyeama stated this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on Sunday.
According to the minister, the airports are closed due to the ongoing conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces’ General Command and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
We have been given the cost estimate and all the details. They gave us a figure of 5,500 who are ready for evacuation. Obviously, what you need in a situation like this is a place where everybody can congregate before you start moving them out. The only viable way out is by road.
But of course, it is not totally safe so you are going to require the government to provide some security and a safe corridor out.
Our situation is particularly challenging because the numbers are so great, he said.
Onyeama said while some European countries and the United States have started evacuating particularly their diplomatic staff, some diplomats from Nigeria will still stay behind to facilitate evacuation.
But what they’ve (European countries) been evacuating were actually their diplomatic staff. They haven’t been able to start evacuating their citizens there. We can’t evacuate all our diplomatic staff at the moment because they need to also coordinate the evacuation of all those students that we’re talking about, he said.
Based on a statement from the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan, a large percentage of the stranded citizens are students.
The ongoing conflict has defied calls for a ceasefire made by the African Union.
