About 100 African students are pleading for help to leave the Ukrainian port city of Kherson, more than two weeks after it was captured by Russian forces.
They have been sheltering for days in underground bunkers on campus in bitterly cold temperatures, with no heating or supplies of medicines. They say they are traumatised and desperate to leave the southern city.
One student told the BBC that they could still hear the “terrifying” continuous sound of gunfire, explosions and military aircraft.
This could be the sound of clashes as the Russian forces push north-west towards Mykolaiv. Russian soldiers have also fired shots at people protesting against their occupation.
The Nigerian students among them have appealed to their government to help evacuate them before it was too late. They have told the BBC that they were among the last foreigners left in the city.
“We are begging, we really need to leave this place, things are not easy for us,” one student told the BBC by phone. We’re not naming them for their own safety.
Nigeria’s government says it is working relentlessly to help them get out. Last week, its ambassador to Moscow was told by a Russian official that plans were being put in place to get the students out through Russia.
But that has not happened yet and in any case the students say they were wary of being taken to Russia.
In the meantime, the students, some of whom are from other countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, said there was still some food available at the university but that most supermarkets had run out of supplies.
Those that were open were selling basic food supplies at double or even triple the normal price.
“Those of us who are staying on campus are the lucky ones because there’s still food being offered at the cafeteria,” said one student.
A second student said that Russian troops who control the city had been dropping off basic foods such as vegetables, rice, pasta and water outside government buildings and near train and bus stations around the city. But they said they had been urged not to take them in case they were seen as collaborators by Ukrainians. -BBC
