Hundreds of Nigerians who had been evacuated from war-torn Sudan and were supposed to be flown back to Nigeria from Egypt yesterday instead found themselves stranded, according to the Federal Government, since they had been denied permission to cross the border into Egypt since their arrival on Thursday evening.
In a statement released yesterday by Mr. Gabriel Odu, Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, NiDCOM in Abuja, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, said Nigerians were among the over 7,000 nationals denied entry by the Egyptian authorities who were demanding visas from Africans to transit to their countries.
The Commission Chairman urged “those concerned with passages and movement of persons and services along the borders of Sudan to create a humane condition for them to have access to their various destinations” as a result. She also mentioned that the Nigerian embassy in Egypt was working on the problem and made a polite request to the Egyptian government to permit the travelers to pass to their final destinations in various African states.
Recall that the Federal Government-hired buses carrying Nigerian students to the Egyptian border on Wednesday raised an alert since the drivers claimed they hadn’t been paid for their services, leaving the students stranded in the midst of the desert.