Foreign students scramble to leave Ukraine

Greg Okua, a public health practitioner in Nigeria, sent regular WhatsApp and Telegram messages to his friend in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy as things heated up along the border with Russia. Last week’s invasion prompted him to seek ways to help the medical student and his peers get to safety.

“I had to find a way to help him out,” he said.

The United Nations refugee agency said more than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries. They include foreign students studying at Ukrainian universities—prime destinations for Africans and other international students in medicine and various fields. But students from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have reported mistreatment by border officials when they try to leave.

Rachel Onyegbule, a first-year Nigerian medical student, said officials at the border town of Shehyni left her and several other African students stranded, refusing to let them board any of the 10 available buses. “We thought after they took all the Ukrainians they would take us, but they told us we had to walk,” she told CNN.

Vishwajeet Kumar, a 24-year-old Indian medical student, said border officials pushed him and other foreigners back to allow citizens to cross the Romania-Ukraine border first during a 20-hour wait.

More than 500 international students who remain stranded in Sumy say they are running out of food and water. Okua’s friend eventually crossed into Poland. “Right now he’s helping with the coordination of Africans to Poland,” he said.

His search for ways to help from Nigeria led him to the group Black Foreigners in Ukraine, which has rallied support online for African students. The volunteers have coordinated funds, shared updates on border points, and partnered with organizations to help the students get settled in Poland and elsewhere.

Okua continues to help with the response logistics team, which coordinates buses to pick up students, pays train fares for those who can’t afford it, and arranges pickup services for students arriving in other countries.

India and several African countries, including Nigeria and Ghana, have started to repatriate students. Okua said the volunteer group is working on long-term plans for students now spread out across other European nations, including options for them to transfer their credits and continue their studies.

World radar:

• AUSTRALIA: Tens of thousands of people fled their homes this week as parts of Australia’s east coast endured record flooding. The Bureau of Meteorology issued warnings for floods, heavy rains, and wind gusts along the New South Wales coast. About 500,000 people were under evacuation orders across New South Wales on Thursday. Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, recorded the equivalent of 80 percent of its average annual rainfall in just days. Authorities reported more than a dozen deaths across Australia on Wednesday, with the numbers expected to rise.

• BURKINA FASO: Military junta leader Lt. Colonel Henri-Paul Damiba on Tuesday signed a charter that sets the course for a three-year military transitional government before democratic elections. The military initially requested 30 months to allow the regime to fight terrorism, stabilize the country, and organize elections. The charter, which followed discussions between the military and civil groups, makes Damiba and the 25 members of the transitional government ineligible to run in the elections. Damiba led the Jan. 24 coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

• SRI LANKA: Residents in Sri Lanka say the price of chicken has more than doubled, while fruit and vegetables remain scarce. Authorities are imposing five-hour daily power outages and asked residents to prepare for water shortages as the island battles one of its worst economic crises in decades. The pandemic worsened Sri Lanka’s economic woes, battering its tourism and trade industries. The nation owes up to $15 billion in international sovereign bonds.

• NIGERIA: Suspected Islamic State extremists killed three Christians in the Chibok area in the country’s Northeast, residents said last week. The terrorists also destroyed a church during an attack on the predominantly Christian Kautikari village. The Chibok community has continued to face attacks, mostly from Boko Haram and its Islamic State offshoot, since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from a boarding school.
  

• IRAQ: The university library in Mosul has reopened its doors after it was damaged during the Islamic State’s occupation. The library, founded in 1921, was hit by missiles, and the conflict destroyed 8,000 to 10,000 books and manuscripts. “It is a symbol of new beginning, and we would like to thank everyone who made it possible,” said Dr. Sayf Al Ashqar, the university’s secretary-general of libraries.

• PLUS … Meanwhile, an investigation this week by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed Swedish telecom giant Ericsson sought permission from Islamic State to work within its onetime caliphate in Iraq. The report revealed the company paid the extremists to smuggle equipment into the region to expand its cellular networks. The leaked documents cover 2011 to 2019 and reveal how Ericsson spent tens of millions of dollars to finance bribery, payoffs, and slush funds. The records uncovered similar misconduct in Lebanon, Spain, Portugal, and Egypt.

Africa brief

Late Wednesday night, strong winds and a welcome dusty but damp smell swept through parts of Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. It marked the first rainfall since the dry season began in November. Many welcomed the brief reprieve. Hot dry weather, with temperatures as high as 99 degrees, can cause the power supply to become even more unstable than usual, and an ongoing fuel shortage makes it difficult to run generators. A forecast afternoon rainfall on Thursday didn’t happen. But it left many of us hopeful for the rainy season that should begin in full force in a little over a month.

The same hope and longing helps us weather difficulties here in Nigeria, in Ukraine, and elsewhere as we also seek ways to ease the suffering. I hope we all draw some strength from the changing seasons and the God who governs all of nature.