Drone strikes pound Port Sudan, putting aid deliveries at risk
African students in Ukraine and Russia
8:02 CAT | 24 Feb 2022
Ukrainian military vehicles patrol in Kyiv
- As a human being you panic
Africans living in Ukraine and Russia have told BBC News Hausa and BBC News Swahili they’re doing what they can to stay safe.
“We woke up to an atmosphere of palpable fear and tension. Everyone is still scared – citizens and foreigners are leaving the country,” says Muhammad Kabir, a Nigerian studying in Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv.
He said he heard “three loud explosions” early on Thursday morning that he and others mistook for “celebratory fireworks” at first.
“I live in a Russian city called Belgorod which is close to the Ukrainian border,” says Nigerian student Sadik Shehu Masalla. “The sound was so loud that it woke everyone up. We were not able to go back to sleep again because of fear since we are very close to Ukraine.”
Tanzanian medical student Evance Liseki who lives in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, says he and his friends have been “hearing explosions, but generally we are safe”.
On Thursdays he usually attends practical classes in a hospital but these have been called off and he’s instead remaining indoors in line with Ukraine’s state of emergency directives.
“For now I can say I am safe but am in a state of panic – as a human being you have to panic”.
- Nigeria offers to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine
The government of Nigeria says it will evacuate its citizens who wish to leave Ukraine as soon as airports are re-opened in the country.
In a statement, Nigeria’s foreign ministry says the West African country “has received with surprise” the reports of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, Francisca Omayuli, says it has been reassured by the Nigerian embassy in Ukraine of the safety of Nigerians in that country and that measures are being taken “to keep them safe and facilitate the evacuation of those who wish to leave”.
The Nigerian government says its mission in Ukraine has confirmed that the Russian action has been confined to military installations.
However, at least 10 civilians are believed to have been killed so far, including six in an air strike near the capital, Kyiv.
Thousands of Nigerians including students currently live in both Russia and Ukraine.
- ‘Seek shelter’ Ghana tells its students in Ukraine
Ghana’s foreign ministry has urged Ghanaian students in Ukraine to seek shelter in their homes or in designated government places of shelter, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More than 1,000 Ghanaian nationals are currently studying or working in Ukraine, the ministry says, adding that it is “gravely concerned” for their safety.
But Ghana’s national student union wants the government to go a step further and evacuate Ghanaian students from the conflict zone until calm is restored in the region.
“We believe that the model used for the evacuation of students from China at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic could be adopted,” the National Union of Ghana Students said in a statement:
The @NUGSOfficial appeals to the Government of Ghana to urgently take steps to evacuate Ghanaian Students from Ukraine and Russia following the declaration of a state of emergency by the Ukrainian Parliament and Russia’s “annexation”of Eastern Provinces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/DvIa3BvcLg
— National Union of Ghana Students (@NUGSOfficial) February 23, 2022
Source: BBC
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