Trapped Nigerians in Ukraine: ‘We want to assume that Russia will respect international law’ – FG

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, says Nigeria expects Russia to respect international law on handling of prisoners of war and civilians not involved in combat.

The minister stated this while briefing State House Correspondents after Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was responding to the fate of Nigerians trapped in already Russian captured cities in Ukraine.

Dada said that the Nigerian government expects that the Russians would obey Rules of Engagement and dictates of international law in the treatment of civilians caught in crisis.

“We want to assume that the Russian Armed Forces will obey the Rules of Engagement.  They know the rules about civilians that are caught in crises such as this.

“We want to assume that they will respect international law and that they will ensure that no harm comes to them.  Don’t forget even our mission in Ukraine had to be evacuated.

“So, if for any reason, any Nigerian is left behind, we very hopeful that no harm shall come to them once they are in some shelter or whatever they are hiding.

“We have had to summon both the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors to our ministry and we did emphasize to them the need for their troops to ensure that they do not do anything to harm innocent citizens,” Dada said.

The minister who disclosed that that arrangements with two Nigerian airlines, MaxAir and Air Peace, to fly Nigerians home Poland, Romania and Hungary, have been concluded, and the aircraft dispatched, said he evacuation will involve many shifts.

 “We intend to run as many shifts as possible depending on the numbers that make themselves available.

“These numbers may not be all because there may be some that have crossed on their own.  There may be some that have made private arrangements that we may not have known about.

“Our missions out there have reached out to student union bodies in all the institutions where they are located, giving them numbers for purposes of contact, told them what borders to go to where it was possible so as to make the evacuation process as smooth as possible.

“Even this morning, I’ve been in touch with some of these our missions, especially in Poland and Romania and they have assured us that the numbers that they have all been accommodated; they are feeding them and they are all ready for the evacuation.”

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the sum of $8.5million for the evacuation of about 5,000 Nigerians from Ukraine.

Dada who disclosed this said the fund approved would also be expended to take cater for the feeding of the evacuees as well as other assistance they might need.

Dada said that he briefed the cabinet meeting on the progress made so far with the plans that have been made for the evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Ukraine.

He stated that the approval was given to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as well as some federal government agencies.

“I did inform Council that on the whole we have 7,100 Nigerians, a conservative estimate, both the registered and unregistered.

“We assume that we have that number of Nigerians living there, a good number of them being students who may have been caught up in this war in Ukraine.

“Evacuating such a number is not an easy task, but we are not unmindful of the fact that some Nigerians may decide not to come back. 

“But our responsibility and our duty are to ensure that we do the best we can to provide them the opportunity to come back if they do choose to come back.

“Therefore, we are making effort with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and other agencies of government.

“In fact, we have held series of inter-ministerial meetings to see how best we can address this matter as quickly as possible.

“But again, as you will appreciate, we have issues of resources involved.  This is where the president’s involvement has been very helpful.”