Sudan Conflict: Ethiopia prevents fleeing students from migrating.

On Monday, the Federal Government confirmed that several Nigerian students who were escaping the turmoil in Sudan had been turned away from Ethiopia, but it assured them that the matter was being handled.

The Federal Government stressed that it was perilous for the students to have set out on such a trek, but added that Nigerian authorities in Ethiopia were taking care of the situation after seeking permission for the fleeing students.

As earlier attempts to halt the bloodshed abruptly failed, Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to a three-day truce beginning on Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday), according to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces  and the Rapid Support Forces have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours,” Blinken said in a statement two hours before the truce was to go into effect.

“During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,” Blinken said.

In Sudan, where a fight between competing generals turned brutally violent ten days ago, Blinken said the United States was also working with allies to establish a committee that would negotiate a long-term truce.

When violent conflict between forces loyal to two opposing generals continued for a second week, other nations hurried to remove their citizens from Sudan.

According to UN statistics, thousands of people have been injured and over 420 people have died amid concerns about further unrest and a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The case of the students is getting the necessary attention, according to Dr. Onimode Bandele, Director of Special Duties at the National Emergency Management Agency and Chairman of NEMA’s Committee for the Evacuation of the Stranded Nigerians from Sudan.

“Yea, you must have been reading on social media that some students got into a town at the border of Ethiopia and they have not been able to grant them passage.

“The Nigerian Ambassador in Egypt, Nura Rimi, confirmed to me that the ambassador in Ethiopia is working on that, and hopefully they should be able to get a passage,” Bandele stated.

He, however, explained that “In our own humanitarian assignment, self-evacuation is at the risk of the person that is involved. If you decide to self-evacuate, whatever you meet is your headache, because you did not listen to the authorities that are supposed to cater for you.

“We empathise with them; we understand their situation; some of them are doing that out of panic or running to safety. But at the same time, self-evacuation has its own disadvantages.

“So, our appeal to Nigerians is that wherever they are, they should please wait for further instruction from the Federal Government, especially the ambassador that is with them in Sudan. He is there with his family too. It is not that he has run out and left them,” Bandele stated.

The NEMA representative added that the Federal Government had thought about utilising the United Nations’ services to evacuate Nigerians trapped in Sudan.

However, he said that this was ineffective because the UN stated that it could no longer provide assistance as a result of the deaths of five UN employees in Sudan.

“We were looking at the possibility of using the UN Utility Service and he (Rimi) said the UN had released a message that they cannot guarantee helping anybody.

“This is because the UN has already lost five staff in Sudan. So they are looking for a way to protect themselves and cannot guarantee anybody,” Bandele stated.