Aliko Dangote Foundation offers to support Air Peace in evacuating Nigerians from Sudan

AFRICA'S richest man Alhaji Aliko Dangote has agreed to help fund the evacuation of thousands of Nigerians from Sudan who are having to flee the country as a result of the outbreak of civil war there.

With heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum, foreign expatriates are fleeing and under a plan put together by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (Nidcom) and the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (Nema), her citizens are being bussed to Egypt and then flown home from there. Air Peace has agreed to fly these stranded refugees back to Nigeria from Egypt free of charge.

Most of the Nigerians in the Sudan are students, mainly from the northern half of the country which shares a lot of cultural characteristics with the Sudanese. Wading into the crisis, the board of trustees of the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has resolved to be fully involved in the evacuation and resettling of the Nigerian refugees.

Zouera Youssoufou, the ADF chief executive has already been in contact with the management of Air Peace and the federal government over the matter. She said the ADF understands the challenges of the federal government and Air Peace involved in this mission, so has contacted some of the relevant government agencies, involved in the programme.

Ms Youssoufou said: “The foundation will collaborate with the federal government and Air Peace in ensuring the seamless transportation of the stranded Nigerians and more importantly provide logistics and succour to the evacuees, to make them settle more comfortably when they return to Nigeria. We are indicating our interest in collaborating with them to ensure that all Nigerians stranded in Sudan are brought back home safely.”

Back in 2015, the ADF provided logistical support for the Nigerian volunteer health workers working on Ebola containment efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.  Also, during the recent Covid pandemic, ADF supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai, helping provide specially chartered flights as well as offering testing and quarantine facilities when they arrived back in Nigeria.

Since 2011, ADF has supported several thousand internally displaced persons (IDP) in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states and in Abuja. Apparently the foundation has spent over N25bn on the provision of food, shelter and health services for these IDPs.