A distressed Nigerian student in Sudan has told the BBC that some of her friends are stranded in the desert after a bungled evacuation effort, “because the bus drivers say the Nigerian government did not pay them any money”.

The 22-year-old, who asked not to be identified, said that only 10 of the 14 buses promised by Nigeria’s authorities arrived in Khartoum yesterday so there wasn’t space for her and others on board.

She’s still waiting in the Sudanese capital with a friend, and fears telling her parents back home that there is no sign yet of more buses:

“I don’t want to break this bad news to them. My mum has been worried.”

She is among more than 1,000 students still sheltering at the International University of Africa in Khartoum. They worry they will be told to leave the premises later today with nowhere safe to go.

The BBC has contacted Nigeria’s diaspora coordination team for comment.

On Wednesday Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had told the nation that the Federal Government had spent $1.2 million in hiring 40 buses for the evacuation of stranded Nigerian students from the troubled country.

Onyeama, who briefed newsmen after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, also disclosed that no Nigerian has so far lost his/her life since the commencement of the hostilities in Sudan a few weeks ago.

Speaking further he said: “$1.2 million is what we’re being charged for all the 40 buses. We have huge transporter luxury buses made available to us to transport to the Egyptian border. Of course you know, because of the risks involved and so many other things, a lot of people are going to also take advantage; you’re going to hike up the price.

“We saw that the French convoy was attacked and so forth. It was difficult procuring these buses. But we had to do it because you know – Nigerian lives.”

Apart from evacuating the people with tourist buses from Sudan to Egypt where they were expected to be airlifted to Nigeria, the minister said the government of Saudi Arabia had helped evacuate some others by ship to Jeddah.

On its part, the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) had also issued a statement confirming the arrival of the buses.

“Last night, the Nigeria Evacuation team in SUDAN received some buses to transport Nigerian Students to nearby borders in Egypt, before airlifting them to Nigeria, this has been sorted by the Federal Government through @nemanigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan,” the Commission had said.

“More buses are arriving this morning and the stranded students will depart today.”

The Commission said the students are undergoing registration ahead of departure.

And in a related development, Sudan’s military has been carrying out air strikes against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum, despite a ceasefire being in force, the AFP news agency is reporting.

Warplanes have been seen over the city’s northern suburbs, while fighters on the ground have been exchanging artillery and heavy machine-gun fire, it quotes witnesses as saying.

Meanwhile, Sudan News has tweeted that three civilians were injured when a projectile hit a residential block in Khartoum.

It did not say who was behind the attack. (New Telegraph)

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