The Board of Trustees of the Aliko Dangote Foundation has announced its decision to fully join to Nigeria’s evacuation team to resettle thousands of Nigerians that are stranded in Sudan.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aliko Dangote Foundation, ADF, Zouera Youssoufou, who disclosed this, said the foundation has contacted the Federal Government and the Management of Air Peace to indicate its readiness to support 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 help them settle more comfortably when they return to Nigeria.”
The MD further noted that ADF understands the challenges of the Federal Government and Air Peace in this mission, and has 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 brought back home safely.”
Aliko Dangote Foundation had in 2015 supported the Nigerian government with logistics for the Nigerian volunteer health workers, who supported the Ebola containment efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone upon their return to the country.
The foundation had also during the COVID-19 pandemic supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai with chartered flights and Covid testing and quarantining when they arrived back in Nigeria.
Since 2011, ADF has supported several thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, and Abuja with a total spending of over 25 billion naira for the provision of food, shelter, and health services.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, in a joint statement, said the first batch of 13 buses conveying six hundred and thirty-seven (637) evacuees had arrived at the identified safe borders at Aswan, Egypt.
They noted that the evacuees are now undergoing necessary documentation and clearance before admission into the Egyptian territory for their eventual evacuation to Nigeria.
Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces, SAF, and Rapid Support Forces, RSF, has been ongoing for about a month now with devastating consequences for civilians, who have been killed, injured and forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict.