Seventeen 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.
Sadly, students from many of these African countries are still fleeing the conflict and trying to return safely to their homelands.
Though reports of some students who have succeeded in reaching their home countries have been emerging, however 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 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 head of the division for internationalisation and a professor in the school of communication at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, Ylva Rodny-Gumede, said that 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 their European counterparts to step in to protect African students in need.
Of the 17 African countries who withheld their vote in the UN General Assembly where 141 countries out of 193 member states condemned Russian aggression, Algeria recorded the first death of a student from Africa.
25-years-old Algerian Mohammed Abdel Monaim Talbi from Tlemcen who died on February 26, was an aerospace engineering student in the capital Kiev since 2018, before he was shot as he tried to flee the fighting. According to his family, He was evacuated by rescuers, but died in the hospital.
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.
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 concerns 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 pan-African body noted that it is disturbed by reports that African nationals were being blocked from crossing the border.
The executive director of the Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict programme at EAA, Qatar, Maleiha Malik, told University World News that the EAA condemns the mistreatment of students who have left their homes to travel to learn and seek knowledge.
Malik added that Students are civilians who are away from home and vulnerable, as such should enjoy protection by all parties at all times, including by all parties to the conflict during war.
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
Nigerian government began the airlifting of its nationals studying in Ukraine on Wednesday 2 March, 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.
After the weekly federal executive council meeting on 2 March, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, disclosed in an interview with Nigerian media that President Muhammadu Buhari approved US$8.5 million for the evacuation of the students and others fleeing Ukraine.
Ghana’s minister for foreign affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, said on 27 February it was expecting 460 Ghanaian students to travel to 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 to receive them.
According president of the federation of Ivorian students and trainees living in Eastern Europe, Serges Guele, all the 500 Ivorians most of whom are students, were able to cross Ukraine borders before the arrival of the delegation of Phillipe Mangou, Ivory Coast ambassador in Germany and responsible for Poland.
Guela said in an email sent to local media that the Ivorians are requested to go to Krakow (Poland) or Berlin (Germany), where there are centers that can provide care and assistance.
East Africa
According to Kenya’s ministry of foreign affairs, about 200 Kenyan students who are mainly studying medicine and engineering, have secured safe passage mostly through Poland.
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.
The fate of over 100 Ugandans working and studying in Ukraine remains a source of concern though 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 the country’s missions in Berlin, Hungary and Moscow to keep in constant contact with the Ugandans in Ukraine until a workable solution is found.
Somalia on its part reveals that her citizens in the war afflicted country has been evacuate, according to a statement the country posted on micro-blogging site, Twitter.
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 country’s mission in Berlin, Germany.
Zimbabwe’s minister of information, publicity and broadcasting services, Monica Mutsvangwa, told a briefing after a cabinet meeting that a total of 118 students have relocated to the following safer places: Romania, 28; Hungary, 15; Slovakia, 26 and Poland, 49.
The information, publicity and broadcasting services permanent secretary, Nick Mangwana, 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.
Meanwhile, Korrine Sky, 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.
According to Clayson Monyela, the spokesperson for the department of international relations, seven South African students have arrived safely in Poland, 15 in Hungary and four were being assisted to cross into Poland.
He revealed that there were two others in a town far from the conflict zones.
North Africa
North African countries Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya have put forward plans to transfer their nationals, mostly students, trapped in the conflict.
According to Ukraine’s ministry of education and science, as of 2020, Morocco is one of three African countries that make up nearly 20% of all foreign students in Ukraine.
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.
