By Lateef Adegbite
It is no longer news that Nigerian students and other Nigerians in Khartoum, Capital of the North African country of Sudan and its environs have been restless because of the tension. This is because of the lack of an escape route to regions where the war is not intense, in order to flee to neighbouring Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt or South Sudan and then make arrangement to return to Nigeria .
Given the attention of countries on the plight of their citizens in the crisis ravaged Sudan, which future looks bleak, Allen Onyema, Chairman, Air Peace, the largest domestic airline in the country has given his words ‘’ to evacuate the Nigerian students and other stranded Nigerians stranded in Sudan, ‘’ if the governmt can get them to a safe and secure airport in any of the neighbouring countries bordering the North African country’’.
The Air Peace Chairman, may have sent a message to Geofrey Onyeama, the mister of Foreign Affairs that’’ if the stranded Nigerians could be taken to the North Eastern African country of Kenya or Uganda or any other country, within the region or the North African region’’, the airline will move in to get them out. ‘’We must not leave everything for the government alone to do’’, he had said.
The Chairman of Air Peace may have thrown a challenge to government agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, under the close watch of Mustapha Habib to leave up to its Constitutional mandate to rescue the stranded Nigerians in Sudan.
. This may have informed why the NEMA, Director General, who is currently in Cairo, Capital of Egypt, is making all the necessary arrangements to evacuate 2000 Nigerians by road on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Onimode Bamidele, the agency Director of Special Duties had said that the plan was to move about 2,650 to 2,800, of the stranded Nigerians in Sudan, including families of the Embassy staff back to the country.
Onyeama, the minister of Foreign Affairs who may have been pushed to the wall to act, had said that the stranded Nigerians in Sudan cannot be evacuated by air because of the cost implication which the government may not be able accommodate with its lean financial resources. He had said that officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan has given the ministry a figure of about ‘’5,500 stranded Nigerians ready for evacuation’’.
The minister may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when he said the government plans to start evacuating nearly 3,000 of the country’s nationals, mostly students, from Sudan by a convoy to Egypt this week.
The Nigeria government may have known that the life of the lives of the over 400 Nigerians and other citizens of the country trapped in Khartoum and other major cities in Sudan would be endangered to travel by road as the country’s major International airport in Khartoum and the land borders with Chad, Ethiopia and other countries including the Central African Republic have been closed.
Prior to the arrangement being, made by Air Peace and NEMA, to evacuate the stranded Nigerians from Sudan, the government was said to have sent a message to Salifu Olukayode Olaniyan, the Nigerian Ambassador to Sudan, to reassure him that the government is still making efforts ‘’to ensure the safe evacuation of the Nigerians in the war- torn country without endangering the life of any citizen.
The Ambassador was said to have made it clear to the minister that ‘’it was still dangerous to embark on a journey towards the Sudan border with the neighbouring countries of Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt and other countries to escape the cross fire between the rival Generals loyalists without security clearance and guarantee from the Sudan Authorities.
Indeed, the inability of the government to act fast to evacuate the Nigerians trapped in the Sudan city of Khartoum, may have given room to the Leadership of National Association of Nigerian Student, NANS, in Sudan to devise plan extort money from the students in the guise of helping them out to leave Sudan to a safe location.
The NANS officials, may have sent a message to the desperate Nigerian students trapped in the war -torn country to converge at the African International University, NNASS, office and El-Razi University and to bring. The NANS officials were said to have told the Nigerian students to come along with $100 and $200 to facilitate the evacuation process.
The Nigerian Embassy officials in Sudan may have seen the NANS’, Leadership action as to an attempt take advantage of the Sudan conflict to swindle the Nigerian students who are desperate to return to Nigeria. H.Y. Garko, the Charge D’Affairs, in the Nigerian embassy, may have said it all when he urged the students to stay indoors, insisting that their ‘’well-being remain a top priority to the government’’.
Akinteye Babatunde, Vice President, External Affairs,NANS, may have seen the government directive for the students to stay indoors until the situation in Sudan improves as punishment. Appearing on Channels Television recently, he had said that ‘’the standard of Living of the Nigerian students in Sudan is fast deteriorating’’.
He has every reason to complain about the poor living conditions of the Nigeria students in Sudan staying indoors on the orders. Hear the NANS External Affairs Vice President: The situation in Khartoum, Capital of Sudan is worse than ever as they cannot go out to get anything, let alone buy food items and buy provisions. He lamented that some of the Nigerian students ‘’hardly feed daily’’, due to the heightened tension in Khartoum and its environs.
Worse still, he said ‘’the fact that the Telecommunication Network and electricity supply in the Sudan Capital city is bad. The CNN, was emphatic on ‘’the acute shortages of water, food, medicines and fuel as well as power and internet Networks’’ in the city, in its recent reports.
Worrried by the situation in the war torn Sudan, which may result in the country being wiped out by the inordinate ambition of two Army Generals, the US, EU, Middle Eastern , African and Asian countries have Launched emergency missions to bring ‘’to safety their embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens by roa, air and sea’’.
The US special Troops were said to have swooped with Chinook helicopters on Sunday, April 22, 2023, to rescue diplomats and their dependents of an unknown country while Britain Launched a similar mission involving more than 1,000 military personnel.
International security experts had reported, that the loyalists of Generals Abdel al-Burhan, Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces, SAF and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, popular, Hemedti, of the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, the two ambitious Sudan Generals involved in the street and Guerilla warfare who are said to be everywhere in the Khartoum, hunting for each other’s loyalists in the once prowling Sudan city to kill, thus forcing people to remain indoors, including diplomats and government officials who are yet to be evacuated by their home countries, Like Nigeria.
The United Nation,UN, agencies had said that no fewer than 427 people have been killed since the Sudan conflict broke out and 3,700 others wounded. . It was surprising why corpses litter the streets and overwhelmed the hospitals in Khartoum and its environs as the Morgues are full.
Many believe that if the Gen. Burhan led government had kept to the agreements reached by all the parties in the post-coup era of October 2021, ‘’to reallocate power away from the security forces and also implement the agreement which forbids the military from taking part in politics and Commerce’’ , there may not have been any problem this time around.
The argument in both official and unofficial circles, was that if he had kept to the Agreements it would have given the Finance ministry the powers ‘’ to fully assume the complete administration of the state owned enterprises’’, which the military had dominated, as a kind of’’ shadow economy since the Omar al-Bashir era.
Another unfulfilled agreement that may have widened the gulf between the two Amy Generals was the government-mandated reforms, such as integrating former rebel groups and the RSF, into a single Professional Army.
Recall that the deal had sought of tried to see the two top military Leaders, Generals Burhan and Dagalo, held judicially accountable. But Gen. Burhan, the SAF, Commander, who incidentally is the Leader of the Transitioon ruling Council could not take it as he may have treated it as a paperwork to continue his aAuthoritarian rule in Sudan. He got it wrong as Gen. Dagalo of the RSF, matched on him.
Until the crisis broke out between the two ambitious Army Generals on Saturday, April 15, 2023, the country was said to have continued to enjoy significant amount of foreign aid from the EU and other developed economies including the International Monetary Fund, IMF and the World Bank that runs into billions of dollars to alleviate the effects of past wars in the country, particular, in the Darfur region.
S Not that since the crisis in the country developed in 2021, the EU and the US, were said to have frozen hundreds of millions of dollars of development Assistance that they had pledged to support the country’s transition. Aid programs from the IMF and the World Bank which runs into billions dollars was said to have also been grounded to a halt, as did critical debt relief Negotiations.
Even the SAF, was said to have failed to gain the full backing of the US, UK and the EU, regarded as the traditional supporters , including he Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, UAE, and Russia which may have caused a division in the ranks of the Sudan ruling Council and the armed conflict.
