By Miriam Humbe, Abuja
As evacuation of Nigerians who got stranded in the Sudan crisis ended, the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA) thanked the stakeholders who assisted in making the operation a huge success.
Director General of the Agency, Mustapha Habib Ahmed gave out the appreciation at an interaction with the media during the weekend.
President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the evacuation which was was undertaken by NEMA through the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The Director General said the evacuation was carried out in line with the mandate of the Agency to evacuate Nigerians in distress abroad back home safety and in a dignified manner.
Ahmed profusely thanked God Almighty that no life of any Nigerian was lost in the crisis so far and during the evacuation.
NEMA particularly thanked Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who through his Dangote Foundation, gave tokens of N100, 000 and dignity packs to each of the returnees.
The NEMA Director General said: “At this juncture, I want to specially thank President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the evacuation operation.
“Let me also thank the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya UMar Farouk and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Goeffrey Onyeama and their ministries for their supports towards the success of the operations.
“Equally, | thank the staff of the Nigerian Embassies in Egypt and Sudan.
“May I also use this opportunity to thank various stakeholders especially the Chaiman/CEO Nigerian Diaspora Commission Dr Abike Dabin-Erewa, the Faderal Commissioner of National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and intemally Displaced Persons, Hajiya Imaan Ibranim-Sulaiman
“The Agency will like to express its gratitude to the Chairman of Airpeace Ltd Mr Allen Onyeama for the bold decision to evacuate the Nigerian returnees for free from Aswan Egypt.
“Equally, | thank MTN foundation for giving the retumees free sim Cards and airtime worth N25,000 and 1.5 gigabyte data.
“Let me commend NEMA staff for their commitment in the evacuation operations, especially members of the advance team that spent days in the desert, sleeping in the open with our citizens there and those of the ground operation that worked day and night to ensure the comforts of the returnees.”
The crisis in Sudan began on the 15th April 2023 as a result of rivalry between factions of the military government in Sudan.
This necessitated the need to evacuate Nigerian citizens that were caught up by the unfortunate situation.
On receiving directive from the President, NEMA swung into action by identifying the safest route to evacuate Nigerian citizens in safety and dignity.
Egypt was identified and an advance team led by NEMA’s Director General, some NEMA staff and stakeholders immediately travelled there where they engaged with the Nigerian
Mission in that country.
The team secured approval for use the airport in Aswan for airlift of Nigerian citizens across the border from Sudan.
Consequently, arrangements were made, local transporters were engaged to move our citizens from Khartoum through to the border town of Argeen and Wadi Halfa.
NEMA said that negotiations for the transportation were done under tense and conflict circumstances.
Ahmed said: “We thank God that we were able to succeed in engaging several buses for movement of first batch of our citizens out of danger to the Egyptian border.
“With the experience of the diplomatic requirements that caused some delays in their movement across the borders to Aswan, a decision was taken that the remaining Nigerians desirous of evacuation back from Khartoum should be rerouted to Port Sudan from where they were airlifted to Abuja.”
A total of 23 sick evacuees were received, out of which 13 were treated on arrival by officials of NEMA, Port Health and other medical personnel within the airport, while 13 were referred to 108 Nigerian Air Force hospital, Abuja.
Among these was a day old Baby who was delivered while the mother was awaiting evacuation at Port Sudan.
The baby was currently being treated for jaundice at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada while a patient with hand injury was being treated at Federal Medical Centre, Jabi Abuja.
Ahmed said that the the 15th flight yesterday marked the conclusion of evacuation of the stranded students that were profiled for airlift back home.
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