TheCable

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) says citizens evacuated from the crisis in Sudan have been stranded at the Egyptian border since Thursday evening.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson of the commission made the announcement in a statement signed by Gabriel Odu, NiDCOM spokesperson.

The commission earlier said the first set of evacuated Nigerians were supposed to arrive the country on Friday, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Dabiri-Erewa said they would first travel by road to the Aswan border in Egypt where both the Nigerian embassy staff in the north African country and the director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) would receive them.

However, in a new development, the NiDCOM boss said over 7,000 nationals, including Nigerians were refused entry into Egypt from the borders.

She said the Egyptian authorities were insisting on visas by fellow Africans to transit back to their countries, adding that the Nigerian mission in Egypt had been working tirelessly to rectify the issue.

According to the statement, Dabiri-Erewa appealed to the Egyptian officials concerned with passages and movement of persons and services along contiguous borders of Sudan to create a humane condition for the already traumatised travellers to have unfettered access to their various destinations.