{"id":2735,"date":"2022-03-16T01:40:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/2735\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T01:40:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:40:17","slug":"nigerian-volunteer-fighting-in-ukraine-is-better-than-living-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/2735\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian volunteer: ‘Fighting in Ukraine is better than living here’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last month, 27-year-old Nigerian Ottah Abraham was outraged.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He grabbed his phone and tweeted, “I want to join the team.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was about 8,700 kilometers (5,400 miles) from the front line, in a small apartment in Nigeria’s main city, Lagos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The philosophy major is one of several hundred Africans, from countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Algeria, who say they are willing to take up arms in the battle against Russia, in part to escape the bleak prospects facing many youths. at home. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We know it’s war, it’s not child’s play,” he told the BBC. “But being a soldier in the Ukraine would be better than being here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I’ll probably be allowed to stay if the war ends, plus I’ll be a hero and fight an undeniable enemy.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some 20,000 volunteers from around the world have reportedly enlisted after Ukraine’s President Volodmyr Zelensky issued a global appeal for foreign fighters to “come and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainians.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The government temporarily lifted its visa requirements and offered equipment and a salary to those with a valid passport and military training. Although there has been no official confirmation that foreign fighters will be allowed to stay in the country after the war. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kereti Usoroh, a Nigerian living in the capital Abuja, said his motivations for volunteering had nothing to do with financial gain or the perspective of citizenship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI already live a comfortable life. If I wanted to go to Europe, I would do it through education, not war,\u201d said the 29-year-old lawyer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s about beating a bully: injustice to one is injustice to all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sentiments to gladden the hearts of Ukrainian diplomats and days after President Zelenksy’s appeal, dozens of hopeful volunteers headed to the Ukrainian embassy in Abuja, with the ambition to enlist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But the Ukrainian embassy in Nigeria, like others in Africa, has had to back down as many of the continent’s governments do not want their citizens to fight in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Nigeria discourages the use of mercenaries anywhere in the world and will not tolerate recruitment,” the Nigerian Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bohdan Soltys, an official at the Ukrainian embassy in Nigeria, said Africans were not being paid to fight, and that people would have to pay for their own flights to get to Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“There is a very fine line between foreign volunteers and mercenaries,” he told the BBC. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He later clarified that he had been instructed to turn away volunteers who arrived at the embassy. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Senegal also warned its citizens not to enlist in the war and ordered Ukraine’s ambassador to remove a Facebook post calling for Senegalese volunteers, calling the recruitment effort “illegal and punishable by law.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Algerian Foreign Ministry issued a similar order to its Ukrainian embassy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“My country says I can’t go. I tried to write to the Foreign Ministry. They didn’t reply, but I’ll try again,” 28-year-old Algerian Belhadj Hani Amir told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I want to go to Ukraine, but I also hope that this war ends as soon as possible.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana, Liubov Abravitova, told the BBC that hundreds of people from across southern Africa had volunteered to fight or work in a humanitarian capacity, but she was unable to honor their requests. because he was waiting for instructions from his governments South Africa has a strict law against mercenaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In fact, Ukraine’s official website for the recruitment of the “international legion” of volunteers, which provides the contact details of local embassies around the world, no longer lists missions in African countries. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A representative working for the website confirmed that some African countries were removed due to “regulatory restrictions”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Algeria, Senegal and South Africa were among 17 of 54 African countries that abstained in the UN vote to condemn the Ukraine invasion, as they wanted to avoid antagonizing Russia. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And Russia not without support in Africa. It has expanded its influence on the continent, especially militarily, by helping countries like the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, Mali and Sudan fight Islamist rebels or militants. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A video purporting to show Central African Republic soldiers vowing to join their “Russian brothers” has also been circulating online, although the BBC was unable to independently verify the source and a government official did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said “more than 16,000 fighters” from the Middle East had volunteered to fight with the Russian military; it is unclear if this includes any from North Africa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But with African governments cracking down on recruiting their own citizens, it is unclear if any of the men will make it to the front lines, and a Ukrainian official in charge of registering foreign volunteers told the BBC that no Africans had arrived.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For some, like David Osagie Adeleke from the southwestern state of Oyo in Nigeria, this was a devastating blow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 21-year-old, who has worked as an emergency rescuer for the Red Cross, had been preparing to enlist as a combatant, having collected the necessary paperwork, including a letter of recommendation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I went directly to the police station to collect my documents,” he said, explaining that one of the requirements to enlist was a clean criminal record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I am disappointed to hear that the embassy is now saying that they will not accept us Africans.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With his emails to the Ukrainian embassy now on the mend, he is looking for alternative routes to reach the country’s border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I have an interview with the Polish embassy in Nigeria,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prince Nkem Nduche, who was among those at the Ukrainian embassy in Abuja, is more knowledgeable than most about the situation in Ukraine and more optimistic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In fact, he spent some time in Russia when he was young, has dual citizenship, and even enrolled in the Russian military academy, but was jailed for a short time, accused of being a spy after he was spotted at the American embassy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said he fled the country seven years ago, via Ukraine, and would happily fight Russia, but accepts that it won’t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I wanted to go alone, but since the Nigerian government said we can’t go… I will obey them,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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