Nigerian Authorities Insensitive to Plight of Citizens in Sudan, Says CNG

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has expressed disappointment over what it described as the insensitivity of Nigerian authorities to the plight of Nigerian citizens in Sudan.

The group in a statement issued yesterday, by its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, expressed worry over reports that about 4000 Nigerians trapped in Sudan were yet to be evacuated.

It said: “We are worried also by reports of the inhuman and exploitative treatment that those who managed to arrive at Cairo and Ethiopian borders are subjected to, while the Nigerian government appears helpless.

“We are thus worried because majority of the stranded Nigerians in Sudan are northern Nigerians which perhaps explains the levity and condescension with which the federal authorities are handling the situation.”

The group wondered why the sense of emergency applied in the evacuation of Nigerians from Ukraine at the onset of the Russian invasion was not extended to the situation in Sudan.

It stressed that it was otherwise curious why the federal government would allow innocent lives to be endangered in a foreign land, while Egypt and Ethiopian authorities exploit their situation.

The group said a responsible and responsive government would by now have reached out to the authorities in Cairo and Addis Ababa to secure easy passage for the stranded Nigerians who have managed to arrive at their borders.

It stated: “The CNG hereby categorically condemns the deliberate insensitivity in the handling of the situation of Nigerians in Sudan who are mostly of northern extraction.

“We demand action from both houses of the National Assembly to compel the federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Security Adviser and Nigeria’s representative in the African Union to ensure urgent and safe evacuation of Nigerians who are mainly northerners trapped between Khartoum, Ethiopia and Egypt.”

The northern group warned that the federal government would be held responsible for any harm to any Nigerian citizen in the conflict in Sudan for not showing real commitment to their evacuation as other responsible governments have done.

It, therefore, demanded full explanation for the delay in evacuation of Nigerians, mostly northerners, from Sudan, while those trapped in Ukraine were treated with a sense of urgency and responsibility.