350 Nigerian students ‘stuck’ in troubled Ukraine

Three hundred and fifty Nigerian students are trapped in Ukraine’s troubled regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry has disclosed.

The ministry said the Ukrainian ministry of education and science had requested all Nigerian students undergoing courses in higher institutions in two Ukrainian crisis regions of Donetsk and Lugansk to urgently forward their names, passport numbers, name of their institutions, courses, year of study and alternative universities within Ukraine to either the ministry of foreign affairs, East and Central European affairs division, Abuja or Nigerian embassy in Kiev.

Such required details, it said, would enable the Ukrainian ministry of education and science to transfer the students to universities in safer central and western regions of the country to continue their studies.

“The directive became necessary following heavy fighting between the Ukrainian military and separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, while the 2014/2015 academic session commenced on September 1, 2014,” it said.

“It is estimated that there are 2,000 Nigerian students studying in various higher institutions of the two regions, out of which about 1,650 had returned either to Nigeria or had moved to safer places at the end of 2013/2014 academic session. The remaining 350 Nigerian students were trapped in the two troubled regions of Ukraine.”

The ministry of foreign affairs urged parents and guardians whose children and wards were studying in the two crisis regions of Ukraine to take urgent steps to get the information across to them wherever they might be for “appropriate action”.