According to the Federal Government’s Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the first batch of Nigerian students evacuated from Sudan will arrive in Abuja within hours.

Planes of the Nigerian Air Force and private airline, Air Peace are already waiting to convey the students to Abuja.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Commission’s Chairman, revealed this on Tuesday.

According to her, the Embassy in Egypt has effectively relocated evacuees from the Sudanese side of the Arqeel Border to the Egyptian side.

She went on to say that the team at Abusimbel will evacuate the Wadi Halfa group on Wednesday morning, and that those at the Port Sudan border, the third group, will be evacuated last because they only arrived on Tuesday.

The Commission further announced that the pupils were being readied for their flight to Abuja via Aswan Airport.

As of Tuesday, jets from AirPeace and the Nigerian Air Force were waiting to transport the students to Abuja after the proper paperwork was completed.

According to the Commission, among the 449 students crossing the border, female students were given preference.

Hundreds of people have been slain in weeks of warfare, leaving bodies festering in the streets and whole neighborhoods in greater Khartoum in ruins.

The most recent fight pits army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s soldiers against those of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who controls the heavily armed paramilitary Rapid Support soldiers (RSF).

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-President Omar al-Bashir unleashed in Darfur two decades ago, leading to war crimes indictments against Bashir and others.