Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo says that all the 14 Students have exited Sumy as well as Ukraine.
Stating that 12 of the students are in Warsaw awaiting evacuation back to Zambia, Mr. Kakubo says 22 students have however opted to remain in Europe after safely exiting war-torn Ukraine.
During a briefing at his office, Mr. Kakubo noted that out of the three students in Kharkov, two of them have moved to a safer city and may opt to exit Ukraine at an opportune time.
He added that one student has safely evacuated out of Ukraine but has indicated that he will not be traveling back home.
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank the hardworking and dedicated team of government officials that have been working day and night to coordinate the evacuation plan,” he said.
The minister commended government officials for doing a remarkable job in ensuring the safe evacuation of Zambian students in Ukraine.
He paid gratitude to each and every member of the multi-sectoral team for the fighting spirit to evacuate the children.
Mr. Kakubo further stated that Government is thankful to God for the safety of the Zambian nationals and for the safe journey out of harm’s way.
“Allow me to pay special tribute to our Honorary Consul Bartoz Brusikiewicz (Mr. Bart) without whom, this difficult assignment would have been even more challenging than it was,” he said.
He also encouraged nationals yet to leave Poland for Zambia to remain strong as the country is finalizing their return to Zambia.
The Foreign Affairs Minister thanked the Zambian people for all the prayers and support for carrying out the important national assignment successfully.
He during the brief disclosed that no Zambian has died in the war and encouraged 600 Zambians in Russia to register with Zambian Embassy in Moscow, for accountability sake.
Recently Russia declared war with Ukraine thereby unsettling Ukrainian and foreign nationals like Zambians who were resident there.
“Let’s roll” …..Brainwave Mumba
Who can believe this government of liars. Tomorrow someone else will make a statement to the contrary
The lessons are many here to timely planning and evacuation of our Nationals my only in Ukraine conflict areas but others here like neighbours The humanitarian crisis was noticed before with enough red flags to act timely and inform parliament on the plans Also evacuation should be on the ground in Ukraine in coordination with citizens and groups making use of international rescue committee and the red cross for access It’s good that the students have been evaluated but there are still many Zambians in and around those affected countries including Slovakia and northern countries bordering Ukraine its possible
You have brought them now attend to pressing national issues which you are ducking…