According to Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, the government is deeply concerned about the safety of thousands of its citizens who are currently stranded in Sudan due to the dangerous state of air travel in the North African nation. Shehu took to Twitter on Sunday to express the government’s worries and revealed that officials have been working around the clock to address the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Nigerian government has been having sleepless nights following the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Our officials are doing a lot, coordinating with the Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments trying to ensure the safety of the large number of our citizens there. pic.twitter.com/nZTgQVxata— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) April 23, 2023
Garba Shehu Tweet partly reads: “Our officials are doing a lot, coordinating with the Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments trying to ensure the safety of the large number of our citizens there.
“Minister Geoffrey Onyeama who is coordinating these efforts is optimistic that they will start moving people to safety as soon as possible.
As of the 15th day of violent conflict that began on April 8th between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Force, over 400 people have been reported dead and around 3,500 injured. The clashes have also caused mass displacement, with numerous civilians fleeing Khartoum to escape the violence.
It is worth noting that until recently, the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel al-Burhan, and the RSF paramilitary group, under the leadership of General Mohamed Dagalo, had been allies. In 2019, they joined forces in a popular uprising that successfully ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for thirty years.
