BUHARI RETURNS, AVOIDS SUDAN AIRSPACE

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Wednesday evening, arrived in Abuja from Saudi Arabia, after his eight-day official visit to the kingdom.

Buhari’s NAF 001 Boeing 737 jet arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 5.08pm after taking a longer flight path to avoid the Sudanese airspace due to ongoing conflict between the military and the members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

A statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said Buhari arrived in Abuja “after nearly seven hours for a four to five-hour Jeddah-Abuja flight due to the ongoing situation in Sudan that warrants the avoidance of the country’s entire airspace by air traffic.”

Sudan’s civil aviation authority had notified that airspace over the country was closed, with a suspension of air navigation services within the Khartoum flight information region.