LAGOS, Nigeria —
Nigeria’s government on
Wednesday planned to start airlifting more than 1,000 citizens stranded in
countries neighboring Ukraine after they fled the Russian invasion.
اضافة اعلان
African countries have been scrambling to help citizens
living in
Ukraine who crossed over borders into Poland, Romania, and Hungary,
especially after reports some were mistreated or blocked at the frontier.
Three jets chartered from local carriers Max Air and
Airpeace will leave on Wednesday, with the capacity to bring back nearly 1,300
people from Poland, Romania, and Hungary, the foreign ministry said in a
statement.
“The first batch of evacuees are expected to arrive
in
Nigeria on Thursday, March 3,” Gabriel Aduda, permanent secretary for the
ministry, said in the statement.
“We assure Nigerians that we are working round the
clock to see that our citizens are bought back home safely.”
Nigeria’s government approved $8.5 million to help
with the evacuation of around 5,000 citizens, the state ministry of foreign
affairs said.
Ukraine’s ambassador to
South Africa said this week
the country has about 16,000 African students there, but many are from
countries with no embassy in Ukraine, complicating the situation.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has 5,600
students in Ukraine, according to the ministry.
Ghana on Tuesday brought back its first group of 17
out of more than 500 students from Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
Governments from South Africa to
Democratic Republic of Congo are working to help their citizens out, some dispatching diplomats to
Ukraine’s borders to aid students who complain of being blocked in Ukraine.
The Africa Union on
Monday condemned reports Africans had been mistreated and in some cases denied
the right to cross Ukraine borders to safety, saying such treatment would be
“shockingly racist”.
A group of around 30 students from
Cameroon who
until recently had been in the central Ukrainian city of Kirovograd said it was
only in the last few days that they had experienced racism in Ukraine.
Before the war, they told AFP, all was fine, but
after the invasion they were kept away from trains leaving the country.
Polish officials say everyone has been treated
equally crossing the border. Ukraine’s border service also told AFP no one had
been prevented from leaving.
As well as the nearly 680,000 refugees who have already left
Ukraine for neighboring states, an estimated one million have had fled their
homes but are still inside the country.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
