Early on Monday morning, a bus carrying stranded Nigerians from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to Port Sudan, where they would then travel to Saudi Arabia, caught fire.
Around 12 a.m. on Monday, 26 buses carrying the stranded Nigerians departed Al Razi for Port Sudan.
“One of the buses conveying some 50 Nigerian students from Sudan with a tag number (Katsina 1) heading to Port Sudan as part of the second batch of FGN evacuation got damaged due to excessive heat from one of the vehicle’s tyres.
“Dr Hashim Idris Na’Allah, the chairman of the Nigerian Elders’ Forum in Sudan, was one of the passengers in the said bus, which contained a total of 50 students (49 males, 1 female).
“The incident happened around 2:30am Sudan time. The driver stopped the bus near an RSF checkpoint, just before the tire exploded causing a fire to start. All the passengers escaped unhurt. Forty out of the 50 passengers were later distributed to the other buses evacuating the students, while the remaining passengers spent the night where the incident happened alongside the driver at the RSF checkpoint.
“The students said the RSF really did their possible best to help the passengers and offered them with cups of tea in the morning before they left,” Sani Aliyu who is in Sudan disclosed.
They have reportedly since continued their trek to Port Sudan, according to information received.
Following the challenges encountered in evacuating the initial group of Nigerians across the borders of Egypt, over 1000 Nigerians are now being evacuated via the Port Sudan route.
The stranded Nigerians had been waiting for a trip back to Nigeria for five days at the borders after Egyptian authorities barred them from entering the nation.
