While other governments are making plans to evacuate their citizens from Ukraine, Ghanaian, Nigerian and other African students are complaining of being abandoned by their various countries.
Anjola-Oluwa Ero-Phillips a Nigerian, told CNN that he and around 70 other Nigerian students are stranded with no way to legally leave Lviv in the west of the country, close to the border with Poland.
According to Abike Dabiri of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission the country’s foreign ministry will announce evacuation plans, but gave no timeline.
“Dabiri also sent updated travel advice from the Nigerian foreign ministry asking Nigerian students in Ukraine to “remain calm but be very vigilant and be responsible for their personal security and safety.”, CNN reports.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched “a military operation” in the Donbass on February 24, claiming to want to defend the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, fear has gripped African students in Ukraine.
There are several hundred of them living in Ivano-Frankvisk, a town in the west where an airport was hit by gunfire, explains a Ghanaian student, Araba Arkoah Mensah: “a military airport was bombed this morning in my town. The result is that everyone is afraid. We are no longer safe, it seems that the whole of Ukraine as a country is under attack. That’s how things look”.
With this uncertainty, universities have officially closed for two weeks, during which time courses will be online for all students, who hope to obtain authorization to leave the country.
To leave Ukraine, these students need special flights especially since they have no easy access to their bank accounts since the situations were becoming complicated in the crisis country.
“Everybody is at the ATM trying to withdraw cash but banks are not opening. Money is running out at the ATM and you can’t do app transactions anymore,” a student said.
In a statement replying to its citizens, the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign affaires urge the students to seek for shelter.
Source:AfrikPage