African countries are coordinating their efforts to help their thousands of nationals leave Ukraine

According to official figures, nearly 80 000 foreign students are present in Ukraine, of which more than 20% come from the African continent. Life is cheaper there than in Western Europe and Ukrainian universities are very popular, especially for medical and engineering studies.

Nigeria has 8 000 nationals in Ukraine, including 5 600 students, said its Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama on March 1. 2 000 of them have already arrived in Poland, Hungary and Romania. The minister also said he had spoken with Ukrainian and Polish authorities to ensure that Nigerians would not be denied the right to cross the border. Especially since foreigners, non-Europeans, cannot stay more than 15 days on Polish soil, the time to go to other destinations.

Moroccans and Egyptians are also very represented in Ukraine. At least 12 000 Moroccans including 8 000 students usually reside there. The Embassy of Egypt, a country with 6 000 nationals in Ukraine, more than half of whom are students, the majority registered in Kharkiv, said on Facebook to coordinate the evacuation of its nationals to Romania and Poland.

Ukraine also had a thousand Ghanaian nationals, 500 Ivorians, 200 Congolese, 200 Kenyans, etc., a legacy of the close relations of certain African countries with the Soviet bloc. 600 Ghanaian nationals have already crossed the Ukrainian borders to join several European countries and will soon be repatriated if they wish, said Ghanaian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey. Some arrived in Ghana, “at the end of a long and trying journey”.

“We have nothing to do with this situation, we just came here to study. This is not our war.”

Kuziva, Zimbabwean student

at AFP

But some are still stranded in bombed towns, like Adamu, a Nigerian student stuck in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. “The roads are not safe but I am determined. I will leave if there is the slightest possibility. Even to go through Kiev or Kharkiv”where fighting is raging, in order to reach the western borders of the country, says the 23-year-old medical student, reached by telephone by AFP from South Africa.

“It’s risky to leave, but also risky to stay”, argues Adamu. Imagine that “The war lasts a year, we should wait here a year… he breathes. We must leave at all costs.”

“We have to try to get out of here via Poland”worries Kuziva, 23, a Zimbabwean student in engineering school. “There’s been a lot of fighting here, hopefully we make it out alive.”

The only good news since the start of the conflict, Ukraine and Russia agreed on February 3, 2022 during talks on the Belarusian border to set up humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians. Which could help the many Africans still stuck in the bombed cities. Few African countries have an embassy in Kiev, which does not simplify the situation. The Secretary of State for Senegalese Abroad, Moïse Sarr, indicated that a dozen African embassies have “pooled their resources and efforts” to support African nationals in Ukraine.


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