The Federal Government says the rescue of Nigerian students trapped in Sumy, Ukraine may commence on Monday.
This is as Russia on Monday announced the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow the evacuation of civilians from several Ukrainian cities experiencing heavy fighting, including the capital Kyiv and Sumy.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the Ukrainian government had given approval for the students’ evacuation.
“Deep gratitude to Dmytro Kuleba, Foreign Minister of Ukraine for approval given, as promised, to establish humanitarian corridor and authorize evacuation of Nigerian students from Sumy starting tomorrow.
“The big challenge is procuring buses. We are doing everything to make it happen. Great commitment by Nigerian Ambassador to Ukraine, Shina Alege.”
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Sumy, in North-East Ukraine, is close to the Russian border.
The Federal government has evacuated more than 1,000 Nigerians who made it out of Ukraine to neigbouring countries such as Poland and Romania.
But the students in Sumy are yet to find a way out of war-torn Ukraine.
The students, in videos obtained by Channels Television on Saturday, said they have dwindling access to food, water and electricity.
They also said they wake up most mornings to the sound of explosions and spend hours in bomb shelters beneath their hostels.
“We are in Sumy and we are stuck in Sumy,” one of the students said during a protest held under snowy conditions.
“This is Day 10, people don’t have water, people don’t have light in hostels. It’s getting cold in the hostels. There is no food. We are running out of supplies. We are calling on the Nigerian government, on the foreign affairs ministry. We want to go home.”
