The buses conveying some Nigerian students trying to escape from war-ravaged Sudan has halted in the desert a few hours drive out of the capital Khartoum following the non-payment by the Nigerian government.
The Sudanese logistics company is threatening to leave the students in the desert over non-payment despite the Nigerian government insisting that it spent the sum of $1.2 million to hire buses to transport stranded citizens from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital to Egypt, from where they would be airlifted to Nigeria.
Five buses filled with Nigerians studying at Sudanese universities left a muster point Wednesday afternoon, but the buses halted before they reached the Egyptian border, the students said.
“The drivers that parked said they won’t move an inch if they are not paid. Their company told them not to move further. It’s a directive from their company,” a student said.
The Buses evacuating Nigerian students and non-student
were stopped in the middle of the Sahara, and the drivers refused to continue the journey because they were not PAID. @abikedabiri @nemanigeria @FMHDSD @nidcom_gov @NigeriaMFAStudents crying out in this video pic.twitter.com/tbXSq1hUdY
— Dr. Ahmad Small (@dr_ahmadsmall) April 27, 2023
The number of stranded students could be as many as 250, each of the buses has a reported capacity of 50 passengers.
A stranded evacuee said: “From the way they talk, it is obvious that we are not far from the border. We don’t know if they will dump us there or take us back to Khartoum.”
“We are stranded in the desert in five buses. No internet, nothing.”
It is almost 1,000 km to the border from the capital. The stranded students are in a desert area that has poor mobile phone coverage, so contact with them has been difficult.
There are thought to be around 2-3,000 students remaining in the International University of Africa campus where the buses departed.
