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ABUJA, May 4 (AP) — Hundreds of Nigerians fleeing fighting in Sudan were evacuated and brought back to the West African country after days of delays, many of them stranded in the desert and on the Egyptian border.
More than 370 Nigerians, many of them students, arrived in the capital Abuja from Egypt on military and local planes at midnight on Wednesday.
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More than 2,000 people remain in Egypt or Sudan and will be evacuated in the coming days, according to the country’s humanitarian affairs minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq.
The fighting, which has erupted after months of escalating tensions between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary groups, has so far killed 550 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
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Several countries are racing to evacuate their citizens from the troubled country, although millions remain there amid a fragile ceasefire.
Planes from the Nigerian military and a local airline have been at Egypt’s Aswan airport since Sunday, but the evacuation has been delayed by logistical and documentation challenges at the border, all of which ended on Wednesday, authorities said. has been solved.
“They’ve been going through a very painful period, but we’re happy … that no one lost their lives,” said Farouk, who received the returning fellow at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport along with other government officials. people.
The returnees arrived looking exhausted, some with just a backpack they said contained their most prized possessions. They were then recorded before receiving food and 100,000 naira ($216) for transportation. At the airport gate, their families hugged them tightly, and their worries quickly turned into laughter.
Returnees recounted how they were stranded for days in the desert and at the Egyptian border after authorities denied them entry for lack of proper documentation.
“In the desert, the extreme cold has no place to sleep, and food is expensive,” said Yahaya Sadiq, one of the returnees.
Others were left without food for days after running out of cash and supplies to escape shooting and bombing.
“I only eat it once a day and it’s given to me by my friends,” said Shehu Hifzullah, 19, who studies medicine at Sultan Bayan University.
More than 3 million Nigerians live in Sudan, according to Abike Dabiri-Erewa, head of the country’s Diaspora Council.
“These are students who go back to their families; they are not refugees, they have a home. They go to study in pursuit of knowledge, so when they go home, they go to their families,” Dabiri-Ewa said. “Priority is given to students, women and children.” (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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