Nigeria’s emerging successful and biggest airline, Air Peace has expressed the willingness to evacuate Nigerians who are stranded in Sudan, the North African country free of charge.
A statement by the airline on Sunday night said that the airline would be ready to evacuate willing Nigerians who may want to leave the country and return to Nigeria.
Mr. Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace, decried that Nigerian students and others stranded in the war-racked nation had urgent “need for our help.”
Onyema is however requesting that it would only evacuate the stranded Nigerians if they could be moved to a neighboring country, saying that Sudan’s airspace is closed to civil aviation flights at the moment.
Onyema explained that he was compelled to help because Nigeria could not afford to lose her citizens in that country, adding that this would be his own commitment to making sure that the stranded Nigerians in the war-torn country were safe.
He stressed that everything must not be left to the government alone, especially as the situation calls for urgency and immediate action.
He said: “Again, Air Peace is willing to evacuate Nigerians stranded in Sudan free of charge if the government can get them to a safe and secure airport in any of the neighbouring countries bordering Sudan. Everything must not be left to the government and the government alone. It will be a privilege and honour of tremendous pride that we will be out there to give every Nigerian stranded in Sudan a sense of pride and oneness in their country.
“We are very ready to do it immediately. No time wasting. Any action that would promote national pride, national cohesion, peace and unity, we are for it. Again, we have no apologies for believing in our nation and loving the nation despite certain national challenges. If they are moved to Kenya or Uganda or any other country, we will move in to get them out. Some parents have started calling on us to help. We are ready to do this again and again,” he said.
Air Peace had in 2019, deployed flights to evacuate Nigerians in South Africa when the xenophobic attack against Africans living in that Southern African country threatened the lives of Nigerians.
Reports claimed that no fewer than 4,000 Nigerians, including students are stranded in Sudan over the war that broke out in that country about two weeks ago.
The Federal Government on Sunday also said that evacuation of the stranded Nigerians would commence on Tuesday, but was silent on how the citizens would be removed from the country.
