One-hundred-and-ninety-eight stranded Nigerians evacuated from Sudan arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Friday around 12:09pm.
The 160 adults and 38 infants and children’s evacuees were evacuated by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) from Port Sudan.
They were airlifted by Tarco Airline, a Sudanese-based airline. So far, the agency has successfully evacuated 2,858 from Port Sudan and Egypt.
The Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, explained why the evacuation process took longer than expected.
He said the process was stalled because the crisis in Sudan escalated and the refusal of domestic airlines to go to Sudan.
The DG added that Tarco airline which finally agreed to airlift stranded Nigerians lost some of their aircraft to the current war in Sudan.
“The most important thing is that they are back home and we have not lost one Nigerian life, which is most important to us. 198 people, including women and children were brought back today and the remaining 40 people would be brought back as we are working round the clock to bring them back,” he said.
Ahmed added that the 100,000 naira provided by the Dangote Foundation, would be given to the evacuees to aid their transportation to their various destinations.
On her part, Director, Migrant Affairs, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Mrs Catherine Udida, said:
“To ensure that Nigerians who are trapped in Sudan are brought back home and as you can see and as you can see we have the most vulnerable ones who are with their children now and DG has already mentioned that we have 40 more and our duty is to make sure that they are provided with social support.
“Now that they are here they may be going through a lot of trauma and the government has done the best to ensure that they were taken care of even while in Sudan. You can see that they are looking better than those we had before because they have been taken care of so we intend to continue with that care to provide psychosocial support for them and ensure that whatever trauma they have been through we make it easier and I integrate them into the society using partner and government effort to provide support where necessary.”
Speaking to our correspondent at the Airport, one of the returnees, a student of International University of Sudan, Economic and Political Science, Jafaru Mohamed, commended previous administration and present administration for making efforts in securing their lives.
