The Aliko Dangote Foundation’s Board of Trustees has agreed to actively participate in the evacuation and resettling of thousands of Nigerians stuck in Sudan.
Zouera Youssoufou, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), has spoken with the management of Air Peace and the Federal Government to express the Foundation’s willingness to assist the stranded Nigerians.
She said: “The Foundation will collaborate with the Federal Government and Air Peace in ensuring seamless transportation of the stranded Nigerians and more importantly provide logistics and succour to the evacuees, to make them settle more comfortably when they return to Nigeria.”
The Foundation MD went on to say that ADF understands the challenges that the Federal Government and Air Peace face in this mission, and that they have contacted relevant Federal Government agencies involved in humanitarian disaster relief intervention, “…indicating our interest in collaborating with them to ensure that all Nigerians stranded in Sudan are safely returned home.”
It should be noted that the Aliko Dangote Foundation provided logistical support to the Nigerian government for Nigerian volunteer health workers who assisted in Ebola containment efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone upon their return to the nation in 2015.
Also, during the recent Covid pandemic, ADF supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai with specially chartered flights as well as Covid testing and quarantining when they arrived back in Nigeria.
Since 2011, ADF has supported several thousand IDPs in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, and Abuja with a total spending of over 25 billion naira in the provision of food, shelter, and health services.
Meanwhile, according to a joint press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, the first batch of 13 buses carrying 637 evacuees has arrived at the identified safe borders in Aswan, Egypt, and is undergoing necessary documentation and clearance before admission into Egyptian territory for their eventual evacuation to Nigeria.
Sudan has seen violent conflicts between the country’s military and the country’s largest paramilitary group.
Hundreds of people have been slain, and thousands of individuals escaping the horrific civil conflict have been reported to be trapped on the Sudan-Egypt border due to Egypt’s visa restrictions.
