Nigeria evacuates hundreds of citizens from hard-hit Sudan

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Sudan late Wednesday after days of delays that left many of them stranded. More than 370 Nigerians arrived the capital, Abuja, aboard a military and local aircraft. “They’ve gone through a very traumatising period but we are glad…no life was lost,” said Sadiya Umar Farouq, the country’s minister for humanitarian affairs. who received the evacuees alongside other government officials at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The returnees spoke of how they were stranded for days in the desert and at the Egyptian border after authorities denied them entry for lack of proper documentation. There are more than 3 million Nigerians living in Sudan, according to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, head of the country’s diaspora commission.