The Federal government has again received more voluntary returnees from Sudan in the wake of protracted crisis in the country.

The voluntary returnees who arrived via Ethiopian airline, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, yesterday in Abuja, were received by the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Person, Tijani Ahmed.

The commissioner while addressing the press, noted that among the returnees, 18 were adult females, five female minors, five adult males and seven minors.

He explained that the 29 are among 120 Nigerians stranded in the war-torn Sudan but efforts are still ongoing to bring back 91 others still behind.

The commissioner said next week, another nine returnees from Sudan will arrive Nigeria however, arrangements are in top gear to ensure 18 other stranded Nigerians from Algeria and eight from Tunisia are also returned.”

Ahmed further said the commission in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration, (IOM) has returned over 1, 950 Nigerians from other countries from January to date and has returned over 7, 000 Nigerians from various countries in 2023 alone.

He assured that the federal government through the commission will continue working to ensure that all Nigerians living in despair and willing to come back are returned to Nigeria safely.

“The Commission is also making arrangements to return Nigerians who are in Cameroon, about 53, 000 of them. By the end of June, we are hoping that many of them would have been returned in addition to 14, 000 Nigerians stranded in Chad,” he adds.

One of the returnees, Firdausi Abubakar, said she went to Sudan to visit her Aunt, (her mother’s younger sister), but became stranded during the crisis.

According to her, “I have since longed to come back home and I free really Happy to have returned back to my home country after five years of being there.”

While praying for officials of government that facilitated their return, a senior returnee, Yahanatu Auwa, said “If not for the intervention of the federal government, where will we access this plane to return home?