The Ukrainian Government has announced that it has approved the humanitarian corridor and authorized the evacuation of Nigerian students from Sumy, Northeast Ukraine, as evacuation is expected to start on Monday.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Nigerian Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama on Sunday evening.
This comes as a host of African and Indian students have been stuck in the North-Eastern City as fighting rages on.
What the Minister said:
The Minister stated “with deep gratitude to Dmytro Kuleba Foreign Minister of Ukraine for approval given, as promised, to establish humanitarian corridor and authorize evacuation of Nigerian students from Sumy starting tomorrow.
He added that The big challenge is procuring buses, adding that the FG is doing everything to make it happen, citing a Great commitment by Nigerian Ambassador to Ukraine, Shina Alege.
On Saturday, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister had revealed that the Ukrainian Government indicated the procedure to follow in respect of the evacuation of Nigerian students in Sumy, which has been communicated to our Ambassador to Ukraine for action.
What you should know
Nairametrics, in an interview with Nigerian students in Sumy, discovered that students were trapped in the city because the roads and rail leading out of the Northeastern city were bombed.
A student told Nairametrics that “those who found a way to leave, had to return to Sumy”, she added that the students are running out of supplies of food and water, and also electricity has been hanging on a thread as reports of bombings close to its power plants.
On the evacuations and humanitarian corridor, she said “procuring vehicles seems to be the problem, because students have taken matters into their hands”.
She revealed that students are paying as much as $250 per person to move to the next state where the train is still functional, “some students paid $2000 to get to Uzhorod so that they can get to the border there” she added.