Security

FG to Commence Evacuation of Nigerians in Sudan Wednesday

By Web News 349

The Federal Government will on Wednesday commence the evacuation of about 5,500 Nigerians, including students stranded in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan.

To facilitate the repatriation, the government has released N150m for hiring 40 buses to convey its desperate citizens from Sudan to Cairo in Egypt.

The money was paid to an undisclosed transport company on Tuesday at 12:37 pm by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed on Tuesday that the payment had been made, noting that the evacuees would take off on Wednesday morning.

The evacuation is taking place against the backdrop of the three-day ceasefire starting midnight Tuesday declared by the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Force.

The Director of the Special Duties, National Emergency Management Agency, who doubles as Chairman of NEMA’s Committee for the Evacuation of the Stranded Nigerians from Sudan, Dr Onimode Bandele, had said the government met with government officials in Egypt on how to move Nigerians through Luxor.

Foreign countries are taking advantage of the temporary suspension of hostilities to move their nationals from Sudan as deadly fighting between the two forces entered the second week.

The clashes broke out between erstwhile allies, General Abdel al-Burha,  who heads the Sudanese Armed Forces and leader of the RSF paramilitary group,  General Mohamed Dagalo, over a power-sharing disagreement.

The conflict had so far claimed about 500 lives with thousands of others injured and millions displaced.

Punch/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

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Foreign

Nigerian Students Fleeing Sudan Stranded in Ethiopia

By Web News 1426

The Federal Government, on Monday, confirmed that some Nigerian students fleeing the conflict in Sudan were denied entry into Ethiopia, but stated that the situation was being handled.

The Federal Government said Nigerian authorities in Ethiopia were addressing the issue, as they had sought clearance for the fleeing students, stressing that it was, however, risky for the students to have embarked on such a journey.

This was as the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday that Sudan’s warring generals had agreed to a three-day ceasefire starting Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday), after previous bids to pause the conflict quickly disintegrated.

“Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours,” Blinken said in a statement two hours before the truce was to go into effect.

Blinken said the United States was also working with partners to set up a committee that would negotiate a permanent ceasefire in Sudan, where the conflict between rival generals descended into deadly violence 10 days ago.

Foreign countries rushed to evacuate their nationals from Sudan as deadly fighting raged into a second week between forces loyal to two rival generals.

More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, amid fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world’s poorest nations.

The Director, Special Duties, National Emergency Management Agency, who doubles as the Chairman, NEMA’s Committee for the Evacuation of the Stranded Nigerians from Sudan, Dr Onimode Bandele, told newsmen that the students’ case was receiving the required attention.

 “The Nigerian Ambassador in Egypt, Nura Rimi, confirmed to me that the ambassador in Ethiopia is working on that, and hopefully they should be able to get a passage,” Bandele stated.

He, however, explained that “In our own humanitarian assignment, self-evacuation is at the risk of the person that is involved. If you decide to self-evacuate, whatever you meet is your headache, because you did not listen to the authorities that are supposed to cater for you.

“We empathise with them; we understand their situation; some of them are doing that out of panic or running to safety. But at the same time, self-evacuation has its own disadvantages.

“So, our appeal to Nigerians is that wherever they are, they should please wait for further instruction from the Federal Government, especially the ambassador that is with them in Sudan. He is there with his family too. It is not that he has run out and left them,” Bandele stated.

The NEMA official also said the Federal Government had considered using the services of the United Nations in evacuating Nigerians stranded in Sudan.

But this, according to him, did not work, because the UN said it could not support anyone now, due to the loss of five UN staff in Sudan.

Punch /Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

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Foreign

UN Calls for Ceasefire in Sudan

By Web News 291

… 185 dead in three days

The United Nations, UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Sudan’s army and the paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighting in Khartoum to sheathe their swords as no fewer than 185 people have lost their lives in the crisis.

Guterres made the call for the ceasefire on Monday adding that any further escalation of the war between the army and paramilitary forces, led by rival generals, “could be devastating for the country and the region.”

The UN special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes has been in contact with the leaders to suspend the war which erupted Saturday, and has raged for a third day through Monday, AP said.

The fighting broke out after weeks of power struggles between the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands RSF.

“I am in constant contact with leaders of both sides,” Perthes told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, via video link from the Sudanese capital.

The UN has suspended much of its operations in the country, said Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, who stressed the UN was “not going to ask staff to go to work when clearly their safety is not being guaranteed.”

“This renewed fighting only aggravates what was already a fragile situation, forcing UN agencies and our humanitarian partners to temporarily shutter many of our more than 250 programmes across Sudan,” the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said in a statement. 

“The impacts of this suspension will be felt immediately, especially in the areas of food security and nutritional support, in a country where some 4 million children and pregnant and lactating women are severely malnourished,” he added. 

The UN Security Council held a closed-door meeting on the situation in Sudan on Monday morning.

The three African members of the 15-member Council — Ghana, Gabon and Mozambique — released a joint statement following the meeting, calling for an “immediate ceasefire.”

The countries called on the Sudanese military and the RSF “to swiftly embrace in the spirit of the Ramadan season, a peaceful solution and inclusive dialogue to resolve their differences,” they said.

Also, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and his Chadian counterpart, Mahamat Deby met in Saudi Arabia to deliberate on Sudan’s crisis.

Guterres said earlier that he had spoken over the weekend “with the two Sudanese leaders and I am actively engaging with the AU (African Union), the Arab League and leaders across the region.”

He added that the “humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic.”

“I urge all those with influence over the situation to use it in the cause of peace; to support efforts to end the violence, restore order, and return to the path of transition,” Guterres pleaded.

Vanguard/Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

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