On Thursday, the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
revealed that at least 350 Nigerian students are currently trapped in Ukraine’s
crisis-torn regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. In efforts to secure and assure the
safety of the students, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science has
requested all Nigerian students undergoing courses in higher education
institutions in the two danger zones should “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 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," it said,
adding that the directive became necessary following heavy fighting between the
Ukrainian military and separatists in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, and with
the 2014/2015 academic session having commenced on 1st September 2014.
The ministry also estimated that 2,000 Nigerian students
were studying in various higher education institutions of the two regions as of
the last academic year, out of which about 1,650 had returned either to Nigeria
or had moved to safer places at the end of the just-closed academic session.
"The remaining 350 Nigerian students were trapped in the two troubled regions of Ukraine," it said, urging the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 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 for "appropriate action".
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