Eight months after, Nigerians trapped in Libyan deserts return
THURSDAY, 08 DECEMBER 2011 00:00 FROM NJADVARA MUSA, MAIDUGURI NEWS - NATIONAL
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest


FIFTY-FIVE Nigerians trapped in the Sahara Desert following the eight-month war and political unrest in Libya yesterday returned to the country through the Gambouru/Ngala border post in the North-East zone.

Among the returnees were a month-old twins accompanied by their28-year-old mother, Bridget, who claimed that her husband abandoned her during the political unrest.

Addressing the returnees in Maiduguri at the Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), the North-East Zonal Coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Aliyu Sambo, disclosed that the returnees spent 31 days in the Sahara Desert, before arriving at the

Gambouru/Ngala border post, 240 kilometres North-East of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Narrating their experiences, a 32-year-old man, Nosa Usunobun, claimed that many of them were held up in the desert for a month, until they found their ways to the Chadian commercial city of Faya.

His words: “We had to flee Tripoli, the Libyan capital, during the unrest because it was unsafe for anybody to stay at that time. But our situation became worse as many of the Libyan Arabs became hostile to foreigners, perhaps because of the effect of the crisis on them.”

Usunobun said thousands of Nigerians were still trapped in the deserts of Libya and Chad and urged the Nigerian government to help evacuate them “before they die of hunger and thirst.”

Bridget said she could not flee crisis-ridden Benghazi, Libya because of her pregnancy, unlike her husband who “ran for his dear life.”

The North-East Information Officer of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said

the returnees were handed over to the agency by officials of the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM).

Farinloye added: “The returnees were mostly from Tripoli and were rescued at Faya, a Chadian province, by the IOM and handed over to us at the Nigerian border. The Nigerian government has taken over the returnees and they will be transported to their states.”

He disclosed that a total of 390 Nigerians have so far returned to the country since September from Libya.

An official of the IOM, a UN organisation, Mr. Roland Alladoumase, disclosed that the organisation rescued most of the returnees in the desert during the crisis.

He said the 55 returnees were the third batch of Nigerians to be rescued and returned to the country.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70135:eight-months-after-nigerians-trapped-in-libyan-deserts-return&catid=1:national&Itemid=559