Testimonials
War in Ukraine: young Africans recount their exodus and call on their governments for help
Many black refugees wishing to leave Ukraine at war have faced facts of racism.
© Visar Kryeziu/AP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Among the populations fleeing the Russian bombardments, there are also Africans who have come to work or study in Ukraine.
The testimonies are multiplying.
Countries are organizing to repatriate their nationals, and Africans living in neighboring countries are trying to help their compatriots.
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After enormous difficulties, Mamady Keïta, a Guinean student managed to cross the Polish border with two Ghanaians and an Algerian.
He is safe and sound, but no longer has a passport, it was stolen from him during his journey.
The young Guinean appeals to the responsibility and involvement of the African authorities to protect their nationals.
Mamady Keïta: the public authorities in Africa must mobilize to help the brothers who are stranded in Ukraine
Aram Mbengue
Some personal initiatives are emerging to help Africans trying to flee Ukraine.
For example that of these two Congolese who live in Poland and who decided to rent a minibus to pick up the Africans stranded at the border.
The line is bad, because the minibus is spinning on the highway.
Back from Medyka, on the Ukrainian border, towards Krakow, Poland.
260 kilometers.
Yuga Buassa and Degaulle Mapasi are Congolese.
They live and work in Krakow and have decided, using their personal funds, to rent a minibus: “
We decided to make a move since the authorities were slow to act.
And given the calls for help that we received, the difficulties that our compatriots and Africans in general were going through, we thought it was good to make a small gesture to go and recover as many people as we could. .
»
Congolese from both shores, Kenyans, Ghanaians… Seventeen Africans boarded the minibus which takes them back to Krakow, where they will be housed and fed by a Catholic mission, which wished to take care of them.
Among them, Dan Ilunga: originally from Congo-Kinshasa, he studied computer science in Ternopil, Ukraine.
“
We were mistreated, not just black people, all foreigners
”
The price and scarcity of taxis was not his only difficulty: “
We were mistreated, not just blacks, all foreigners.
The foreigners had their side and the Ukrainians had theirs.
Everything was well coordinated at home, they passed.
We had already organized everything at their place.
But on the foreign side, it was complicated.
The way they talked to us was tough, the way they acted was tough.
There was no respect.
And it came from the police.
»
Dan Ilunga spent a night with a Polish family, who were kind enough to welcome him, before taking the road to Krakow, from where he will organize the rest of his trip.
Yuga Buassa and Degaulle Mapasi promise that, if the need arises, they will rent a new vehicle and hit the road again.
►Also read
:
War in Ukraine: EU denies racist treatment of African nationals
Repatriated Tunisians
Dozens of Tunisians, mostly students, arrived overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in Tunis, after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
They were repatriated on board a military plane, during a second evacuation flight chartered by Tunisia.
After a long and perilous journey via Poland, they were greeted at the airport by their relieved loved ones.
They are in tears or smiling, but the emotion is palpable on the faces of the young Tunisians who embrace their loved ones at Tunis airport.
They are mostly medical students who fled the war-affected Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
►
To read also
: The treatment of Ukrainian news shocks Afghans and Iraqis
Listen to the report by our correspondent in Tunis, Oumeïma Nechi
57 - UKRAINE / TUNISIA _Enrobé Repatriation operations -
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