Amb. Olaniyan urges calmness in looming Sudan war
The Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Sudan, Safiu Olaniyan has urged the stranded citizens of Nigeria in the country to remain calm as the officials keep working for their safe movement back home.
Olaniyan made the appeal on April 30, 2023, after the reported intending attack on representing officers in the country.
He maintained that the officers are working tirelessly by making timely arrangements that ensure immediate evacuation from the war zone, which they are all aware of.
“The embassy is not in charge of the evaluation; all we are doing is logistics. We have not been given any money to hire buses; the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA are the ones in charge,” he said.
Olaniyan added, “We are all as vulnerable as you are; we have no food like you, we have no water, no light. It is not as if we are living in different world, what you are experiencing is also what we are experiencing as well,” the ambassador said.
Lamenting the current situation of the 1st batch evacuees, a citizen has pleaded to the government of Egypt to issue security clearance in a very short time.
Another citizen, Balqees Yusuf also lamented that the evacuees are left stranded at the Sudan border to Egypt for more than four days without basic needs for survival — no food, water and money.
Reacting to them, the ambassador to Sudan stated that he had got in touch with the relevant authorities in Nigeria, who will further get across to their counterparts in Egypt for security clearance from the Egyptian government.
He concluded by assuring every Nigerian present in Sudan that no officers will leave the Republic until all citizens are evacuated for safety.
