Over 150 Nigerians trapped in Sumy, a Ukrainian city bordering Russia, have been denied access to Russia despite frantic calls made to the Russian government by the Federal Government, PUNCH reports.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had on Monday said that he was having talks with the Russian government with a view to ensuring that the 150 Nigerians that had indicated interest to leave were given access to Russia.
Sumy, which is located in North-East Ukraine, is far from the Polish, Hungarian and Romanian borders and Russia remains the closest place these Nigerian students can run to for shelter.
“There are some Nigerians in a place called Sumy close to the Russian border. I have been in touch with the ambassador. There are about 150 of them who are looking to cross into Russia and we have asked the ambassador in Russia to try and get a permit for them to transit to Russia,” the minister had said.
According to PUNCH, Russia had failed to grant access to these Nigerian students as it has continued to bomb the city, destroying the road that connects Sumy to Russia.
Confirming the situation of the students in Sumy, the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission said the road linking Russia to the city had been damaged, making it near impossible for them to escape.
The Spokesperson for NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said Sumy had become a war zone as a result of the invasion.
According to the commission, those in the war theatre were the major concern of the government after evacuating those in Romania, Hungary and Poland.
He said, “Sumy is like a war zone. The embassy has advised them to stay calm. The bridge connecting them to Russia has been damaged. They can neither go by road nor air.
“We will evacuate everybody, but it has to be well arranged. They are our major concern, they have been unable to cross the border but the government is aware of where they are and we are doing everything possible to make sure they are evacuated. But in the meantime, we want to ask all of them to remain calm and not to wander about which could be very dangerous. At the appropriate time, they will be rescued.”
Some of the affected Nigerian students told CNN that they “were trapped” and helpless.
A 21-year-old medical student, Vivian Udenze, who attends Sumy State University, told CNN, “This is the 8th day since the crisis began. A lot of places have been evacuated. There are more than 600 of us who are foreigners and students.”
She said most of the group were medical students, and they were from Nigeria, Morocco, Tanzania, Congo and India, among other countries.
Udenze told CNN via the telephone that she woke up to two loud explosions around 8 am on Wednesday and heard gunshots on Thursday.
“I am so scared and time is running out. We don’t want the Russians to enter the city and meet us here. We need a humanitarian corridor so we can get out,” she said.
Udenze later said that more explosions were heard on Thursday evening at around 6:30 pm local time. The students no longer have electricity or water following the blast, she said.
Complicating the students’ escape is the fact that there is no public transportation available in Sumy, which has come over a heavy fire in recent days, leaving roads and bridges destroyed.
Udenze said she had not been able to reach any representative of the Nigerian embassy.
“People have tried to contact them … I personally sent a message to someone there but I didn’t get a reply,” Udenze said.
Another student, Excel Ugochukwu, who is a first-year Business Management student, said he heard the sound of an aircraft and a loud explosion. “We just lost electricity,” he said.
He said the university had “asked everyone to stay put and in the shelters for now,” but described a constant threat of danger that makes day-to-day life tense in the city.
“There is a curfew 6 pm to 6 am. During curfew hours there are total blackouts. Street lights and lights inside the house are turned off,” he told CNN.
“There are air strike warnings periodically and everyone moves to the bomb shelter,” he added, before running to a nearby bomb shelter.
In a video sent to CNN, another Nigerian student at the university, Nnamdi Chukwuemeka pleaded, “Sumy is bordered by Russia, and as such, there is no way for us to escape. We want the international community to help provide a safe corridor for us to move out of Sumy. Things are getting serious,” Chukwuemeka said.
When contacted by CNN, the foreign minister simply stated, “We are aware and are making arrangements.”