Nigerian students trapped in Kherson, a southern Ukrainian city occupied by Russian troops, say they have been left traumatised after two weeks sheltering underground, and want their home nation to act swiftly.
Jerry Kenny told the BBC that he and six of his friends had fallen sick because of the poor conditions below ground and said had no access to food and other essentials.#
“Some people can’t even talk because they are scared,” he said, adding that the Nigerian government had not “reached out to us in terms of food or water, nothing”.
“I’ve spoken to so many representatives, ambassadors and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be evacuated. But we are still stuck here,” he said.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffery Onyeama said at the weekend that he was in contact with Nigeria’s ambassadors to Ukraine and Russia, as they engaged the Russian and Indian governments as well as non-governmental organisations to safely evacuate the students trapped in Kherson.
Reports say more than 100 African students, many of them from Nigeria, remain stuck in Kherson.
So far, more than 1,400 Nigerians have been evacuated from Ukraine since the Russian invasion began there three weeks ago.
