The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) has described as ‘unacceptable’ the response of the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to Nigerian citizens trapped in crisis-ridden Sudan.
OsunDaily News reports that Buhari’s government had on Friday stated that it can’t evacuate Nigerian students from Sudan at the moment.
The Federal Government stated this amidst calls to evacuate Nigerians trapped in the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Not less than 300 people have lost their lives since the fighting erupted last Saturday between forces loyal to Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement released on Friday, said that while the Nigerian Mission in Sudan and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have put in place arrangements to evacuate Nigerian students and other Nigerian citizens stranded in Sudan, the tensed situation makes it gravely risky and impossible for any flights at this point in time.
Reacting in a statement sent to OsunDaily News on Saturday, AYCF National President, Yerima Shettima, said the forum is very uncomfortable with the fate of Nigerians trapped in Sudan due to ongoing war and killings.
He said: “It is totally unacceptable that while several countries were evacuating their citizens from Sudan, ours is the only African nation giving excuses.
“With thousands of Nigerians in Sudan, especially male and female Northern students being the majority, we reject the lame excuse given in a letter by the Nigeria Embassy about the difficulty of evacuating our sons and daughters. No Northerner in this country is at peace since the killings and arson started in Sudan.
“We are aware that the Sudanese government had already warned that the situation would escalate, and gave 72 hours ultimatum for countries whose citizens are either doing business or schooling in that country to be evacuated. We cannot fathom why all we get at the moment is the excuse by our Embassy that doing so would be difficult. What held us from taking advantage of the 72 hours ultimatum in the first place?
“It is abundantly clear that lives are now at stake, especially for our Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan, considering the escalation of this war, that involves the use of heavy-duty incendiary.
“As a group, we wish to make it categorically clear that if our innocent Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan get killed in this war, we shall hold the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan accountable.
“We wish to emphasize that on no account should these young and innocent Nigerians be left to their own devices, because they have a fatherland that has the constitutional and legal responsibility to protect the lives of citizens anywhere they are on this planet.”
