Evacuation of Africa’s students from Ukraine continues

While 17 African countries were among the 35 states that abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution on Wednesday 2 March demanding that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine”, students from many of these countries were still fleeing the conflict and trying to return safely to their homelands.

Although news of some students who have succeeded in reaching their home countries has been emerging, information about the safety of the thousands of students from North, West, East and Southern Africa, many of them studying medicine and engineering, remains vague.

The uneven response of African governments to the calls from students has also given rise to calls for a coordinated approach and effort to locate and repatriate the students stranded in Ukraine.

“The call is for institutions such as the Association of African Universities, as well as regional bodies organising institutions of higher education, to act and to put pressures on European counterparts to step in to protect African students in need,” writes Ylva Rodny-Gumede, the head of the division for internationalisation and a professor in the school of communication at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, in University World News.

Despite the death of 25-year-old Algerian Mohammed Abdel Monaim Talbi from Tlemcen who died on 26 February – the first student from Africa to die according to available reports – Algeria withheld its vote in the UN General Assembly where 141 countries out of 193 member states condemned Russian aggression.

Talbi, an aerospace engineering student in the capital Kiev since 2018, was shot as he tried to flee the fighting. He was evacuated by rescuers, but died in hospital, according to his Algerian family.

The other countries which abstained in the UN vote were Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Eritrea was the only African country (of a total of five states also including North Korea, Belarus, Russia and Syria) that voted against the UN resolution condemning Russia.

In the meantime, the African Union (AU) and international organisations, including Education Above All (EAA) and the US-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have voiced concern at the reports of mistreatment of students from Africa, among other students from developing countries at border crossings in Ukraine, and have been calling for the establishment of a safe passage for all students.

The AU noted that it is “disturbed” by reports that African nationals were being blocked from crossing the border.

“All people have the right to cross international borders during the conflict, and as such, should enjoy the same rights to cross to safety from the conflict in Ukraine, notwithstanding their nationality or racial identity,” the pan-African body said.

Maleiha Malik, the executive director of the Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict programme at EAA, Qatar, told University World News the “EAA condemns the mistreatment of students who have left their homes to travel to learn and seek knowledge”.

“Students are civilians who are away from home and vulnerable, [and] should enjoy protection by all parties at all times, including by all parties to the conflict during war,” Malik added.

In an earlier statement the EAA said it was gravely concerned at the consistent reports of international students from African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries stranded at border crossings while trying to evacuate and flee the violence in Ukraine.

The reported actions against African and Asian students, among others, has been testing the European Association for International Education’s International Student Mobility Charter, which states that governments and higher education institutions must safeguard students against discrimination.

West Africa

After desperate calls from students in Ukraine the Nigerian government swung into action and on Wednesday 2 March began the airlifting of its nationals studying in Ukraine, after students who were fleeing the Russia-invaded country encountered difficulties at the borders with neighbouring Poland, Romania, and Hungary.

According to the ministry of foreign affairs, there are 8,000 Nigerians living in Ukraine, 5,000 of whom are students.

Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said private airlines Air Peace and Max Air had been contracted to airlift the stranded Nigerians, local newspaper Punch reported.

After the weekly federal executive council meeting on 2 March, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, disclosed in an interview with Channels Television that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved US$8.5 million for the evacuation of the students and others fleeing Ukraine.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana’s minister for foreign affairs, said on 27 February it was expecting 460 Ghanaian students to travel into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, where Ghana’s diplomatic missions, honorary consuls, and minister of foreign affairs and regional integration were on standby.

According to local media, neighbouring Ivory Coast had about 500 nationals living in Ukraine and most of them are students.

Serges Guele, president of the federation of Ivorian students and trainees living in Eastern Europe, sent an email to the local newsrooms on Wednesday 2 March.

He said that all the 500 Ivorians were able to cross Ukraine borders before the arrival of the delegation of Phillipe Mangou, Ivory Coast ambassador in Germany and responsible for Poland.

“Ivorians are requested to go to Krakow (Poland) or Berlin (Germany), where there are centres that can provide care and assistance,” Guela said.

East Africa

About 200 Kenyan students, mainly studying medicine and engineering, have secured safe passage mostly through Poland, according to Kenya’s ministry of foreign affairs.

In a statement to the East African and other media houses in Nairobi on 1 March, the Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau said the Kenyan government negotiated with the European Union to allow Kenyan students unrestricted entry into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Although Kamau did not elaborate on the procedure of how students were to get visas and other travelling documents, he confirmed that 74 students had been allowed entry into Poland and were staying in Warsaw, Krakovets and Katowice.

He added that two students had entered Romania while two more were in Hungary and one had arrived in Nairobi.

Whereas Kenyan students appear to be on their way home, the plight of over 100 Ugandans working and studying in Ukraine remains bleak.

The Ugandan government, through its ministry of foreign affairs, said it was making all efforts possible to ameliorate the plight of Ugandans in Ukraine. The ministry also instructed Uganda’s missions in Berlin, Hungary and Moscow to keep in constant contact with the Ugandans in Ukraine “until a workable solution is found”.

Somalia has undertaken to evacuate citizens and, according to a Twitter post, has done so.

Southern Africa

Zimbabwe has evacuated 118 students, mainly studying medicine, engineering and economics, from Ukraine. It was facilitated by the Zimbabwean embassy in Moscow, Russia, and the African country’s mission in Berlin, Germany.

Monica Mutsvangwa, the minister of information, publicity and broadcasting services, told a briefing after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday 1 March that students have so far been relocated to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

“To date, a total of 118 students have relocated to the following safer places: Romania, 28; Hungary, 15; Slovakia, 26 and Poland, 49,” she said.

Nick Mangwana, the information, publicity and broadcasting services permanent secretary, said in a tweet that once citizens arrive in any third country, the government will pay for their hotel stay and buy their repatriation flight tickets.

A Zimbabwean second-year medical student in Dnipro, Ukraine, has created a WhatsApp group for African students studying in Ukraine to share information during the ongoing war.

“If there are any resources or help that can be offered to African students trying to leave Ukraine, please can you message me so I can formulate a thread or some information for my colleagues here, so we can help them,” she wrote on Twitter.

According to TimesLive, three South African students landed in Johannesburg on Wednesday 2 March.

Clayson Monyela, the spokesperson for the department of international relations, told the newspaper that seven South African students had arrived safely in Poland, 15 in Hungary and four were being assisted to cross into Poland.

There were two others in a town far from the conflict zones.

North Africa

University World News reported on Wednesday 2 March that North African countries had put forward plans to transfer their nationals, mostly students, trapped in the conflict. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya all put some measures in place.

This followed on what Western leaders said was a “dark day” for Europe and calls for help from students. Kamal Ashear, a Moroccan student at Dnipro State Medical University in Ukraine told University World News in a recorded message via WhatsApp: “Moroccan students are now in shelters in a dilemma, panic and great fear. We do not know how to return to our country ... No airports. No trains, no cars, no taxis. The cities are closed, the streets are empty, and the movement is paralysed.”

Morocco is one of three African countries that makes up nearly 20% of all foreign students in Ukraine as of 2020, according to Ukraine’s ministry of education and science. Morocco, Nigeria and Egypt are in the top 10 list for countries whose students are studying in Ukraine, accounting for 8,000, 4,000 and 3,500 students respectively.

Wagdy Sawahel, Francis Kokutse, Jesusegun Alagbe, Wachira Kigotho, Esther Nakkazi, Kahofi Jischvi and Kudzai Mashininga contributed to the news report.