Nigerian students and citizens as of Friday were filling out forms for them to be airlifted back to the country as Sudan’s military rivals engaged in supremacy battles. This is just as Uganda, Tanzania, and other African countries are rescuing their nationals from the troubled north-eastern African country. Assistant Editor Bola Olajuwon writes on challenges facing evacuation and the underlying factors behind the current battle between former allies.
The situation here in Sudan is horrible as students have been experiencing the awful sounds of gunshots, artillery, bombings, the collapse of residential and governmental buildings and it’s still ongoing for almost a week non-stop.
“Most of the residents are leaving the capital city Khartoum to neighbouring states. Our students across Khartoum are in terrible condition and we are currently experiencing a shortage of foodstuffs, an electricity blackout for almost a week in some areas, a lack of water, lack of medication for some of our female students who are critically ill. Medical facilities are not accessible; most of the hospitals are closed.
“We are calling on the Nigerian government and humanitarian agencies for immediate support because the situation keeps on escalating on a daily basis.”
These were the words of the President of the International University of Africa in Sudan, Mohammed Jilambu, while describing the horrors of the conflict in the north-eastern African country.
Nigerians are now accustomed to this pathetic situation of their countrymen and women during crises in their host countries.
About a year ago in Ukraine, Kelsey Onyeka was among hundreds of Nigerian students stranded in a university located in Sumy, North-Eastern Ukraine. After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s half-hour speech declaring war on Ukraine, Kelsey’s quest for knowledge became associated with gunfire, running, hiding and bombing.
In the midst of Russian shellings, Kelsey and her co-students would rush to a nearby bunker, hoping the bombs wouldn’t hit them.
“I have been disoriented from lack of sleep for days because I can’t sleep with my two eyes closed; I always expect to hear ‘go to the bunker’ whenever the Russians start bombing,” she said a few days into the Russian-Ukraine war.
President Muhammadu Buhari thereafter approved $8.5 million for the evacuation of about 5,000 Nigerians that fled the war to Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.
In the case of the current Sudanese quagmire, Nigerian students numbering about 1,300 have appealed to the Federal Government to evacuate them from the north-eastern African country, where a fierce military confrontation between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary group, Rapid Support Force, has claimed hundreds lives with thousands injured.
Narrating their experience in an interview, Secretary-General of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Sudan, Adam Mohammed, said many students had run out of food.
Mohammed said no student had been hurt so far, but he lamented that students were experiencing food shortages, electricity outages, and telecommunication blackouts.
Appeals for evacuation
The Nigerian Students in Sudan have also officially appealed to the Federal Government for the evacuation of their members.
“We hereby write soliciting and yearning for the Nigerian Government’s intercession to rescue and send for an immediate evacuation of the Nigerian students that are stuck in the centre of the ongoing war,” they wrote in a statement sent to The Nation.
The students said they have, since the fighting in Sudan erupted on Saturday, been stranded in fear with no access to basic needs equipment and have been facing dangerous threats.
“We strongly hope that our call for rescue to our dear nation Nigeria will be responded to with immediate effect,” the students appealed.
The National President, Nigerian Students in Europe (NANSE), Bashiru Muhammad, has also urged the Federal Government to take immediate action and ensure the safety of Nigerian students who are currently studying in Sudan.
He said the ongoing conflict and war in Sudan posed a significant threat to the well-being and academic progress of Nigerians studying in the country.
Muhammad implored the government to take necessary measures to evacuate Nigerian students from Sudan and provide them with adequate support and resources to continue their education.
Members of the Parent-Guardian Association of Nigeria, whose children are schooling in Sudan, have appealed to the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to assist in the evacuation of the Nigerian students.
While Nigerians in Sudan don’t know their fate, Japan, Uganda and Tanzania have begun the evacuation of their citizens trapped in the deadly war.
It was learnt that Japan sent a military plane to evacuate 60 Japanese citizens. The Tanzanian government was as of yesterday preparing to airlift its 210 nationals. The Uganda foreign ministry stated that it was working to evacuate 275 nationals trapped in Khartoum. The United States is considering sending more naval ships and personnel to Djibouti in case of evacuation of its embassy staff.
Fed Govt’s reaction
The Federal Government, through the NIDCOM boss, noted with concern the plight of Nigerian students in Sudan over the escalation of hostilities between the Sudanese Army and the Paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The NIDCOM boss, in a statement Gabriel Odu of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, NIDCOM, stated that the commission received the letter of solicitation by National Association of Nigerian Students Sudan for possible evacuation of students, especially those in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. She assured that the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), which is in charge of emergency evacuations, is consulting with the Nigerian Mission in Sudan and other relevant agencies .
She, therefore, urged Nigerian students in Sudan as well as Nigerians living in Sudan to be security conscious and calm.
But, in another development, Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa said evacuating the Nigerian students from warring Sudan would not be possible at this time even though there are plans already in place to make that happen.
In a tweet on Friday, she said the tensed situation makes it gravely risky and impossible for any flights at this point in time.
About 1, 300 students had filled their forms as at Friday that they are ready for the evacuation.
However, amidst the precarious military offensives between rival military rivals in the Sudan cities, the number of Nigerians in the African country as at yesterday remain unknown, according to the Head, Media and Public Relations Unit NIDCOM Nigerians in Diaspora Commission Abdur-Rahman Balogun.
While some media reports were quoting about 4000, Balogun in an interview with The Nation said Nigerians are commonly known for arriving and living in many countries without documenting their stay.
“We have at various meetings advised against this practice, because it’s when they are in trouble they will start running from pillars to posts,” he said.
He said the agencies of government are coordinating the best possible evacuation measures to take to help rescue stranded Nigerians back home.
The Federal Government on Thursday said it had requested permission to evacuate Nigerians, especially students, trapped in the armed conflict.
It also appealed for a ceasefire to enable the evacuation of foreign citizens.
In a statement by its spokesperson, Francisca Omayuli, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “The Federal Government is deeply concerned about the escalation of conflict in Sudan between Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, which has brought death and untold suffering to civilians.
“The non-adherence of the warring parties to numerous international calls for a ceasefire has worsened the plight of civilians and made it impossible to embark on their evacuation. Nigeria, therefore, wishes to reiterate the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire.”
“In the meantime, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with the Sudanese authorities and has, through the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, made an official request for permission to evacuate Nigerian students and other members of the Nigerian community, who may wish to depart the country.
“Additionally, the Nigerian Embassy has created Whatsapp and Telegram platforms for the students and other Nigerians in Sudan, for the purpose of proper coordination and regular updates. Nigerians in the country are advised to remain indoors.”
Sudanese former allies turned foes
Until recently, the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel al-Burhan, and the RSF paramilitary group, headed by General Mohamed Dagalo, were allies.
The two Generals worked together in 2019 during a popular uprising that overthrew Sudan’s brutal dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades.
The RSF, led by General Dagalo – who is generally known by the name Hemedti – has worked alongside the Sudanese army to help keep the military in power.
Following Bashir’s ouster, the political transition was supposed to result in elections by the end of 2023, with Burhan promising a transition to civilian rule. But it appears that neither Burhan nor Dagalo has any intention of relinquishing power. Moreover, they are locked in a power struggle that turned violent on April 15, 2023.
Since then, members of the RSF and the Sudanese army have engaged in gunfights in the capital, Khartoum, as well as in other parts of the country.
The recent background to the violence was a disagreement over how RSF paramilitaries should be incorporated into the Sudanese army. Tensions boiled over after the RSF started deploying members around the country and in Khartoum without the expressed permission of the army.
But in reality, the violence has been brewing for a while in Sudan, with concern over the RSF seeking to control more of the country’s economic assets, notably its gold mines.
The developments in Sudan over the last few days, according to Christopher Tounsel, a Sudan specialist and interim director of the University of Washington’s African Studies Programme, are not good for the stability of the nation or its prospects for any transition to democratic rule.
The two men at the centre of dispute
Dagalo rose to power within the RSF beginning in the early 2000s when he was at the head of the militia known as Janjaweed – a group responsible for human right atrocities in the Darfur region.
Tounsel said while then-Sudanese President Bashir was the face of the violence against people in Darfur – and was later indicted on crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court – the Janjaweed is also held responsible by the ICC for alleged acts of genocide.
“While they were doing so, Dagalo was rising up the ranks.
“As head of the RSF, Dagalo has faced accusations of overseeing the bloody crackdown of pro-democracy activists, including the massacre of 120 protesters in 2019.
“The actions of Burhan, similarly, have seen the military leader heavily criticised by human rights groups. As the head of the army in power and the country’s de facto head of government for the last two years, he oversaw a crackdown of pro-democracy activists.
“One can certainly interpret both men to be obstacles to any chance of Sudan transitioning to civilian democracy. But this is first and foremost a personal power struggle,” Tounsel submitted.
Some observers are interpreting what is happening in Sudan as a battle between two men who are desperate not to be ejected from the corridors of power by means of a transition to an elected government.
A country known for most coups in Africa
Sudan, according to analysts, had witnessed more coups than any other African nation. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1956, there have been coups in 1958, 1969, 1985, 1989, 2019 and 2021.
The coup in 1989 brought Bashir to power for a three-decade run as dictator during which the Sudanese people suffered from the typical excesses of autocratic rule – secret police, repressions of opposition and corruption.
Buhari, other world leaders weigh in
President Muhammadu Buhari decried the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Speaking during a visit to him by the Transitional President of Chad, Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, last week, President Buhari described the fighting as unfortunate.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week said he had consulted with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and that they had agreed it was essential for the involved parties in Sudan to immediately end hostilities without any preconditions.
After a phone call, the Saudi, U.S., and UAE foreign ministers called for a return to the framework agreement on the transition to democracy, the Saudi state news agency reported.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Burhan, Hemedti, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Guterres’ spokesperson said.
Recipe for an avoidable catastrophic civil war
A foreign and public affairs commentator, Paul Ejime, while commenting on the Sudanese crisis, said the existence of a regular army side by side with a rival 100,000-strong paramilitary forces in Sudan is always a recipe for an avoidable catastrophic civil war.
“The international community should stop playing the ostrich or supporting either side in the unraveling vicious power struggle.
“The African Union must step up to its responsibilities and provide leadership as a relevant continental political organisation.
“The Sudanese themselves, military and civilians alike, owe themselves and the world a duty to stop their self-destructive tendencies,” Ejime said.
The Nation
