All Nigerian students evacuated from Khartoum - NANS

The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, in Sudan, has said all Nigerian students stranded in the war-racked North African country had been evacuated from the country’s capital, Khartoum to the Egyptian border.

The Public Relations Officer of the association, Amal Pantami, who disclosed this in a statement late Sunday, said: “This is to inform the general public that all the remaining Nigerian students have been evacuated from Khartoum.

“There were a total of 26 buses and each bus contained about 50 people. We continue to ask for everyone’s prayers and we hope all the students are able to reach Nigeria safely. We’re ever grateful for your continuous support and prayers.”

More than 500 people have been killed and tens of thousands of people have fled since battles between two groups, the Army and Paramilitary Frontier Forces, led by two generals, erupted on April 15.

The Federal Government on Sunday said it spent $1.2m on bus fare to evacuate the stranded Nigerians to Egypt borders for onward airlifting to Nigeria.

The fighting pits the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his ex-deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces, RSF, a heavily armed paramilitary group.

The federal government has already positioned Air Peace, which offered to conduct the airlift free of charge, and the Nigerian Air Force, NAF.