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By Chika Abanobi, Kate Halim, Chioma Okezie-Okeh, Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, And Vera Wisdom Bassey
Nigerians living in Ukraine have described life under the Russian invasion as hellish. The condition is heightened by a lack of basic amenities like food, water, and clothes under the harsh winter weather, and racism. Their accounts were corroborated by a Ukrainian as well as Poland-based Nigerian who is helping to take care of his trapped fellow countrymen and women.
Their revelations came as the first batch of the flights from Poland, Romania, and Hungary carrying refugee Nigerians aboard Air Peace and Max Air, arrived yesterday, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Though the Federal Government has budgeted $8.5m for the airlifting which is expected to bring home about 2,000 stranded Nigerians, some of the people that Saturday Sun spoke to, including a medical student and one of the parents of about 4,000 Nigerian students said to be studying in that country, criticized the government for taking the decision a bit late. All the same, they remain grateful for their efforts.
What it means to be trapped in Ukraine
The Nigerian medical student, Dennis Otumudia, stranded in Kharkiv told the story of how he woke up to the sound of bombs going off around him. The young man who claimed that a lot of African students, mostly from Nigeria and Morocco, are trapped in Ukraine, stated that the major means of transportation over there are trains and metro services. But the services they provide were shut down, making it difficult for foreigners like him to leave the country.
Otumudia who criticised the Nigerian government for not being proactive added that since there had been signals that something like this would happen, they should have acted fast. His words: “We were told that they would evacuate us when the airports are open. I was in Kharkiv and tried to reach the embassy for a while but the contact number I had was not connecting.”
Nigerian students in Ukraine, he said, needed somebody to tell them what was going on but regretted that there was nobody to do that. “They needed somebody in a position of authority to give them reliable information as to what to do because they were scared of their lives but we couldn’t see anybody until much later.” Another medical student, Fehintola Moses, 22, told the BBC about his unsuccessful attempts to leave Sumy, in northeast Ukraine, where there had been fighting between the Ukrainian Defence Forces and the Russian troops. Sumy is also near another frontline in Kharkiv.
Through WhatsApp messages and voice notes, he spoke of how his efforts to leave the city were aborted after his university told him that the train lines nearby were being controlled by Russian forces. He said he was told to stay at the campus. He added that there is no public transport in the city as some roads have been damaged. “We had a good supply of food; grocery shops are still open – which I fear may not last long,” he said. “The school is providing foodstuff for people who need it. We have water. We are still trying to sleep and wake up. What we need is someone who can remove the Russian soldiers from the streets, someone who can repair the bridges, someone who can make sure the railroads are safe. That’s what we honestly need right now.”
Johanna, a 17-year-old Nigerian who also found herself trapped in Ukraine is seriously praying to return to the country alive. “I am a Nigerian studying at V.N Karazin National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine,” she told an international electronic medium. “I am studying medicine and I am a first-year student. Initially, I did not see the need to leave till Putin gave a date for the war. It got so serious, there were bombings in Kharkiv, my city. We had to hide in underground bunkers for our safety. We could hear the sound of the bomb; we were not sure of the next minute and there was chaos everywhere. So, I just had to leave. I have never gone through something like that before. I booked a taxi to take me to the Poland border. The driver collected a lot of money from me. He was supposed to drop me in Medyka. He did not but just said, ‘walk down a bit and you will see Poland’s border.’ I met a lot of people heading to the border.
“We were not close to the Poland border and we had to walk the whole day and throughout the night. I was very cold, very hungry, and couldn’t sleep. Even if I wanted to sleep, it was too cold; I was shivering. On getting to the border, I didn’t like the experience there. They just kept us waiting there for no reason. They were letting Ukrainians go. We were there for more than five hours. If you are a Ukrainian, there is no need to seek clearance. They would even push you aside to make way for their people. The fact that we are not in our country does not mean that we are not human.” The young woman said she eventually managed to cross the border with a group of Ukrainian women.
Another Nigerian, Queen Alita Peter, claimed that she was forced out of a train because of her skin colour. “When we heard about the attack, we knew that it was time to leave,” she said. “Meanwhile, it was already too late because some of us had flights to catch that day. In the train, a lady just told me to get out of the train for no reason. The train we boarded together. I asked her why. She said they only let children and women go. I asked her if I was a man and she said, I had to leave because I am not a Ukrainian. I told her ‘this train does not belong to you, it belongs to the government and they want people to enter and get to the border.’ She insisted that she is a Ukrainian, it is her government and she has the right to decide who enters the train and ordered me to get down.”
Eberechukwu a 300 level student in one of the Ukrainian universities, said before the closure of the airport, he had the premonition. He thereafter alerted his parents about his uncomfortable feeling. The young man, the only child of his parents, said that not too long after he did so, his parents sent him some money to leave for the UK. But as soon as he left the country, the airport was shut down indefinitely. Another student, Damilare Toyin who finished his degree programme together with his niece who is now a medical doctor at Ile-Ife said he could not return immediately because of his intention to continue with his master’s degree. But as the crisis deteriorated he took a train to Hungary. It was from there he was flown home.
From Kiev, Ukrainian lady speaks to Saturday Sun
A Ukrainian national, Kathryn Verbina, who corroborated most of the reports said that the Ukrainian military needs technical support. The woman, who, in a chat with Saturday Sun, said there was no time to talk, because “my country is at war,” sent pictures and videos of the war situation to Saturday Sun, with sounds of bomb-blasts and gunfire rending the air. The pictures depict desolation, disbelief, horror, with many soldiers and civilians, including women and children, being consumed in the attacks.
One of the videos showed dead bodies of soldiers lying on the ground, with Russian soldiers closely monitored and walked around them. Also in the pictures were houses wrecked by Russian shelling. Dead bodies of children were strewn everywhere. Explaining the situation, Verbina said: “I woke up at 5am because of the explosions. Men go in self-defence while women and children run into the bunkers.”
She further told Saturday Sun: “Right now, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Krerson and other cities are being attacked.” Asked if she wished to run away to safety or stay back in Ukraine, she said: “I want to remain at home.” But she, however, added that she was not feeling safe. She called on the international community, especially the United Nations to tell the truth about what is going on in Ukraine.
