By Chimezie Godfrey
The Federal Government has said difficulties at the Egyptian borders had delayed the evacuation of the 637 Nigerians.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management & Social Development (FMHADMSD), Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo who doubles as the chairperson of the Situation Room established by the Ministry revealed this on Sunday in Abuja while briefing newsmen on government’s efforts in tackling challenges mitigating against the evacuation of the first batch of evacuees from Sudan to Nigeria.
Recall that 637 evacuees were moved from Sudan. to Aswan border in Egypt in recent days, these were expected to have concluded their documentation and clearance that would have enabled the Federal government evacuate them back to Nigeria.
However, Sani-Gwarzo noted that only 420 out of the 637 Nigerians have been cleared, due to difficulties posed by the Egyptian Government who were concerned about the security and safety of their country.
He disclosed that a high level consultation was ongoing between the government of the two countries to resolve these challenges, expressing optimism that the outcome would be positive.
He said,”First of all, let me give you a situation report, it is on record that we have an estimated number of 500,500 Nigerians including a majority of students that need to be evacuated from Sudan and most of them need to be evacuated from a particular spot, and that is Khartoum. We have other locations where Nigerian students are in various universities across the country. So is not just Khartoum, as the one that is receiving attention is Khartoum. Our attention is on all of them.
“The attention will be principally on students, by the media and by the public in Nigeria and the instructions received from Ministers is that no Nigerian irrespective of status must be left behind. And remember the very first meeting we had of this team, we all pledged ourselves to do everything we can to bring back every Nigerian that needs to be brought back home.
“On our record, we have an estimated 5500. So far, we have been able to move 637 Out of Khartoum directly by the federal government to the port of Aswan or its axis in various locations of that place. We have people that have arrived the border of Sudan and the Nigerian Embassy in Cairo, in Egypt has made arrangements to receive this 637 out of which they were able to clear 420.
“But the Egyptian have not so far cleared them, to move into Egypt. The reason is, the border arrangements in those locations are different from the usual border arrangements we’re used to in West Africa. You need a visa. You need to pay a fee to exit a country and you need to pay a fee to enter a new country.
“What the Sudanese borders is asking Nigerians to pay is equivalent to $8 for exit, but the Egyptian government is asking for evacuated citizens is $25. It’s not the money that is the challenge. It is sad to know that so far it’s been 3 days, all the Nigerians that are that border have not been cleared yet, for reasons best known to the Egyptian government.
“All high level consultations are ongoing and I have every reason to say that it will positive. They have their own concerns and we have our concerns, our concern is to bring our people to safety. And their concern which we do not know yet is to protect their country.”
Sani-Gwarzo revealed that other alternatives were being explored to fastrack the evacuation of these Nigerians, assuring that efforts have been made to ensure that they are brought back to the country as soon as possible.
“However, we believe we shall have a convergence, where they will allow Nigerians to pass, if they do pass, we already have positioned a military plane in Aswan. Aswan is about 400 kilometers away from the border. As soon as they are cleared, we have arranged vehicles to move them to Aswan and the plane will bring them, he assured.
Sani-Gwarzo thanked the Nigerian Air Force for their support in helping them achieve their goal of safely evacuating all Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
“We want to use this opportunity to appreciate our Nigerian Air Force for coming into our support.
“We have sent in not only a crew to bring these people back, we have included some medications, some food, water and essential life saving commodities. As soon as this people join that place, they will first of all be supported before they are evacuated.
“You should know the terrain of Sudan. Sudan is one of the largest countries in Africa. It has a very expansive borders that covers about 10 additional countries, passing through those borders is extremely difficult. No matter how it looks, it’s a very difficult procedure. So what with whatever authorities that are concerned to make sure that these people are evacuated.
“We are tracking every Nigerian that is in those locations.. We are aware of the pains and the difficulties that people are facing. However, we are appealing to the public especially those directly involved, the students and the Nigerians that are in Khartoum trying to be evacuated, and the parents and relative of those Nigerians that are trying to be evacuated to remain calm and exercise patience, some negative discussions, some negative publicity can be very harmful. And there is a limited to what we can say we are doing because some of them borders on security, some of them borders on even heavier implications. And that is why we are very mindful of to say and how to say it.
“But we know wherever they are, we know the categories of people that are in various locations.And believe me, it’s not just the border of Egypt. We have people that have arrived in towns across. We track them, we speak with them, we speak with the local leadership.
“We have people in Madani which is several kilometers away from Khartoum. We have people in the Gadara. We have people in Gwanda that have crossed to go to Ethiopia. We are tracking them and making sure they’re safe.
“We have people that have crossed to Saudi Arabia through the port Sudan. Right now we have a number that is building up in Jeda, that we have been able to support to reach there, that other bilateral governments have helped us to ship them into their countries,” he said.
He added,”We have received very good support, and we use this opportunity to appreciate the government of Saudi Arabia, for taking the pains to carry Nigerians in their ships into their country, and alerting us to come and take them from there. We appreciate them. We also appreciate the government of Ethiopia for allowing Nigerians that have crossed to get access and go to Addis Ababa, where some of them have been sent back home.
“We also appreciate the government of Chad because the Nigerian ambassador in Chad is very alive to listen, watching out for people that have crossed to go to Chad and move to their border. We are working all on the eight borders. Now this is about people that have moved to the border.”
Sani-Gwarzo commended the government ofJigawa, Borno, and Kaduna for their effort in moving their people.
“Let’s go back to the people that are at Khartoum. Right now. We have booked out 13;buses on the federal government. 3 state governments have helped in moving their people. Some of their students they brought as a group on scholarship, Some of their students that have brought the protein in good scholarship, particularly the Government of Jigawa, government. Borno state and the government of Kaduna State. They have moved in a total of about five buses. I think the number may increase but they have moved them, they are now in the border.
“Whoever that mey have moved them, they continue to remain the concern and under the care of the federal they are part of the number we are factoring in and we are supporting them.
“We are aware that some people are still facing difficulties in locations. It is not because of our inability to plan and it is not because of the inability to get them through but because that is the situation in Sudan,” he said.
He further disclosed,”The next thing is the difficulties we are facing in Aswan. Our plane is there now in Aswan waiting to receive these but they have not been able to move them from borders into Aswan. So clearly there is a difficulty, but that is the difficulty that our principals are trying to resolve. I must say that the Ministers, even the SGF, NSO, NSE, and even Mr President have been following up on a daily basis listening to the performance of this committee finding out how they can help us, to support us a hie e our goal.
“We have also sort the support of other international agencies to help us and they have been very kind with information. The help may not necessarily mean physical evacuation but the information that will be useful on how we can move forward. And we do have partnership with bilateral governments to support our work.
“And our team when we finally bring in these Nigerians back home is ready for a grand reception as you can see, the directors, the honourable commissioner for Refugee Commission she here with us. She is ready with her team to receive them here in Abuja. We decided to centralize their reception depending on certain factors. This is the normal plan, but in a war situation, the plan will be flexible to accommodate any challenges or any new development.
“Because what we are doing, we have recorded some requests from some neighbouring countries to support them in evacuating their citizens. And the numbers are very small. We have requested our principals especially the ministry of foreign affairs and we have their express approval on these numbers. We should not ignore our neighbours in the spirit of good neighborliness.
“Other possibilities of making sure that we have. alternative routs have also been explored. Is not just either Aswan or Sudan that we are considering. Whichever ports that is becoming more available we have made our options open. But we are making concrete arrangements where we are now and that is Aswan and now potentially port Sudan.”
On the issue of payment which has generated a lot conversation on the social media and among Nigerians, Sani-Gwarzo said that Sudan do not have a banking system that is recognisable, thereby making financial transactions very difficult.
He said,”The issue of payment is what am sure that many of you would want to hear, there is a lot of rumour Let me set the background, Sudan naturally do have a banking system that is recognisable. So, you don’t transfer money from Nigeria to Sudan or from anywhere in the world to Sudan. They rely heavily on the issue of money transfer, they rely heavily on who you know, and trust and who can vouch in for you to do so. When we started this work, we now arranged with the people of Sudan, the relevant agencies through our visions, through our contacts.
“And I will tell you also the ways we are going in discharging our responsibilities, so we payed a deposit as soon as they received the deposit for 40 vehicles, they calculated exactly the amount we gave that is $13.million with an extra of some thousands of dollars they now stop at 13 . They give us 13 vehicles and closed the matter, all efforts to get them work they said ,”no that is the deposit made, give us another deposit.
“We were speaking two languages, now that we have understood their language, we have decided to pay everything, so, we are paid everything. As am speaking with you,, tell anybody that you have in Sudan to send you pictures I have mine too. The vehicles are rolling out of Khartoum. And we told them, we delayed them for three reasons.We were in a dilemma of what to do.
“Now that we have sent the first batch. it is four days at the Egyptian borders and nobody have been allowed entry, not a single person. Should we continue to amass people in that border. Do you know what border means in most desert areas? Because there is no housing, no accommodation, the pictures you see as small villages where there is no roof, the tree where some of them. Do we sent 20000 People, 30000 People 30 buses to amass in Egypt so waited so we waited to recalculate to move to another port.
“And as I’m talking to you, I have reliable information that we are going to get easy access to typical facet that we mentioned earlier.We’ll make it an alternate access to the Sudanese border, the port Sudan. Our Principles have spoken to the nations and we will give them free access.And that is why we’ll have to delay and last batch may move them to different group until decision are made right.”
To further douse the tension about expiration of the cease fire in Sudan, Sani-Gwarzo announce that the ceasefire has been extended by 72hours.
He assured that even there would be continued aggression that the Federal government would ensure every Nigerian are evacuated. “We will ensure that all Nigerians are evacuated and safely to Nigeria,” he assured.
