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 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.
On why the evacuation process took long, Ahmed said: “We all know the crisis in Sudan has escalated seriously. No Nigerian aircraft can go to Port Sudan. We contacted each airline in Nigeria and they were not ready to deploy to Sudan.
“Even the Sudanese-based airline we are using; Tarco; we have been working back and forth with them. They had to engage the military authorities for us to be able to evacuate these people.
“A war-torn country is not something we want to experience. We are pleased that they are home and we have not lost one Nigerian to the war. Mothers and children are back safely. We brought back 198 people consisting of 160 adults and 38 children and infants”.
On those still stranded and how the agency intends to evacuate them, the DG said: “We have leftover of 40 people, and getting the approval of the authorities is very difficult.
“This same airline (Tarco) had some of their aircraft blown up in Khartoum and Port Sudan. So, to go to Sudan to do evacuation is a very difficult thing. I have been having sleepless nights on this issue.
“To be frank, the situation is very difficult, the war has escalated, and going into that terrain is almost impossible.
“So far, we have evacuated 2,858 people. We have 40 more left and we want to ferry them because the airline had to work with military authorities to get this set of 198 out.
“So, the easier way for us since the numbers are about 40 is; we will ferry them to Jeddah and then get tickets for them to come back to Nigeria. We have evacuated mostly children, so those we have left there are young men.”
On whether the evacuees were properly profiled, Ahmed said: “These are Nigerians. We are working with the Nigerian embassy in Sudan which did the profiling and almost all of them have their passports. Those without passports are the kids. So, they are Nigerians.”
The agency also said if the situation in Niger warrants evacuation of Nigerians, they would be evacuated.
Ahmed said: “For Nigerians in Niger; if we get to the level where we need to evacuate them, we will. If the situation in Niger warrants us to evacuate Nigerians, we will. We just pray that there is peace all over the world.”
