A group of Nigerian evacuees from war-torn Sudan who arrived in Abuja on Wednesday night have shared their harrowing experiences upon arrival at the airport.
Bellnewsonline.com reports that these evacuees were among the Nigerian students who were rescued from Egypt by the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) on the same day.
The evacuation process faced initial challenges as the stranded Nigerians were denied entry at the Egyptian border. However, President Muhammadu Buhari intervened and resolved the situation, allowing the Nigerians to pass.
Zainab, a 300-level physiotherapy student and one of the evacuees, recounted her despair during their ordeal in Sudan, Bellnewsonline.com reports. According to her, their treatment at the Aswan border in Egypt was inhumane, and their condition was “really terrible and totally hard.” She and her fellow evacuees had lost hope in their survival until their rescue.
“When the war started, I didn’t know because we were sleeping, we just started hearing gunshots and rockets and we had to leave where we were for safety,” she said.
“We had to leave Khartoum for Egypt and it was totally hard for us. Some of us don’t have money and life there was very expensive. There were pregnant women and children who were sick.
“We didn’t think we would survive it because we slept in the car. All of our lives were in the car. Life there was totally hard and they treat us like we are not human beings at the Aswan border in Egypt where we spent about six days.”
Another student, Akinola Barakat, claimed the trip from Sudan to the Aswan border took approximately a week, adding that the violence erupted “all of a sudden and we never expected it.”
“We had issues at the border. Sudan border to Egypt, that was where they gave us issues. We spent almost a week there and the journey wasn’t easy at all,” she said.
“It was all of a sudden. We never expected it. We just woke up in the morning and started hearing the sounds of bombs and everyone had to start fleeing.
“I left Nigeria to study in Sudan because studying in Nigeria is not easy. I studied at the International University of Africa.”