Ghana’s foreign ministry has advised Ghanaian students in Ukraine to seek shelter in their homes or in designated government places of shelter, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to the ministry, over a thousand Ghanaian nationals are currently studying or working in Ukraine adding that it is “gravely concerned” for their safety.

However, Ghana’s national student union wants the government to go a step further and evacuate Ghanaian students from the conflict zone until calm is restored.

“We believe that the model used for the evacuation of students from China at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic could be adopted,” the National Union of Ghana Students said in a statement:

The @NUGSOfficial appeals to the Government of Ghana to urgently take steps to evacuate Ghanaian Students from Ukraine and Russia following the declaration of a state of emergency by the Ukrainian Parliament and Russia’s “annexation”of Eastern Provinces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/DvIa3BvcLg

— National Union of Ghana Students (@NUGSOfficial) February 23, 2022

As the Ghana government is advising their nationals to find shelter, the over 4000 Nigerian students in Ukraine are expecting their government to also come to their aid.

There’re many Nigerian students in Ukraine, I hope there are plans to advice them accordingly. You don’t want citizens neglected in an unstable environment.

— A.I. Adamu, PhD (@isasquare) February 21, 2022

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Already, some foreigners living in Ukraine are planning to vacate the country. A Nigerian living in Ukraine, Olutobi Fatonade, explained that many of the people he knows are planning to leave the country because of the conflict with Russia.

He said that he himself had a sister who is a British citizen and so he was planning to travel to the UK “until everything dies down”.