Sudan: Conditions Must Be Met Before Nigerians Can Enter Egypt — Ambassador

The Nigerian Ambassador to Egypt, Nura Rimi, has insisted that the conditions given by the Egyptian authorities to the Nigerians fleeing the conflict in Sudan must be met before they can be allowed to enter their country.

Per reports, 637 Nigerians who were evacuated from Sudan are stranded at the Egyptian border, six days after their arrival.

According to the federal government, the Egyptian government opened their border to the fleeing Nigerian citizens following an intervention by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking on the issue of allowing the Nigerian students access to Egypt, Rimi said: “We are waiting to be called to cross over to the Sudanese side to receive our citizens, our students who have been there for six days now.

“You can imagine that they have been out there for five-six days.

“So, as soon as they come in, they are going to be checked in by the Red Cross to determine their state of health before we put them on the bus before we start the six-hour journey to Aswan.

“When we get to Aswan, aircraft would be ready to take them to Nigeria. That is one of the conditions.

“As soon as we pick them up, we will hand them over to NEMA officials and, of course, our officials will accompany them with an escort of the government of Egypt to Aswan Airport and straight into the aircraft.

“We have a C130 on the ground and an Air Peace plane is on the way.

“They are going to release the students based on the number of available seats and the aircraft on the ground.

“I do not know how many batches are there because they are on the Sudanese side of the border while I am on the Egyptian side of the border but I know that there are about 500 people out there.

“We know that the Egyptian government gave us some conditions to which we must comply.

“We are going to go on with the evacuation based on the agreement with the Egyptian government. No one has crossed the border yet.”