The Nigerian Government has said it is in the process of evacuating Nigerian students in Sudan, where there is an ongoing civil war.
It said it was consulting with the National Emergency Management Agency to carry out a successful evacuation.
Nigerians studying in the North African country had accused the Nigerian embassy in the country of abandoning them and failing to give them updates regarding the ravaging war.
However, a statement signed by Gabriel Odu for the Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit for Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, on Thursday, disclosed that NiDCOM was in consultation with NEMA, the Nigerian mission in Sudan and other relevant agencies.
He said the Chairman/CEO, NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, “urged all Nigerian students in Sudan as well as Nigerians living in Sudan to be security conscious and calm”.
A crisis broke out in Sudan after weeks of a power struggle 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.
No fewer than 200 civilians were reportedly killed in the war that erupted in Khartoum between aggrieved parties in the country.
A Nigerian student trapped in Sudan alleged that unlike their counterparts from Niger Republic, Cameroon, and Kenya who were regularly updated on the precarious situation of the war by their respective embassies in Sudan, there was nothing as such coming from the Nigerian Embassy.
Umar Faruk told Voice of America (VOA) Hausa Service that all Nigerian students were safe and that even in a university close to a military facility where some of the combat soldiers entered, nothing untoward happened to the students in the school.
Farouk explained that despite the rumours, there were still peaceful places in Sudan and that Nigerian students in those places were safe.
He ruled out the possibility of the over 2000 Nigerian students leaving the country either through the airport or moving to the border with neighbouring Egypt, adding that doing so would be difficult as “the airport is already closed for operation.”
“And if we are to move to the border with Egypt, how can such a large number of Nigerian students embark on such a long trip?” he asked.