Africans terrified to go out in Russian-captured city

A Cameroonian student in the Russian-captured city of Kherson has told the BBC that he and friends are terrified of going out, saying the southern Ukrainian port is now like a ghost town.

“The situation in Kherson is relatively calm compared to other days. The Russians have taken over the city,” said Christophe, who is 22 years old and has been studying business at the Kherson National Technical University.

“We are not going outside because we are scared, we are scared. When I say everything is quiet it’s like a dead city, there’s no-one outside at all.”

Kherson is the first major city to be taken by Russia following heavy fighting since it invaded just over a week ago.

On Tuesday, Christophe told the BBC about how he and a group of fellow Cameroonians, Nigerians, Senegalese and Ghanaians had been trapped in a basement for days hiding from bombardments, unable to escape the city.

He said city residents were now subject to an overnight curfew from 20:00 until 06:00 local time (18:00 GMT – 04:00 GMT).

“You can go out during the day to buy some food and stuff if you can find them because most supermarkets are empty, ” he said, adding that people can only go out in pairs.

“More than two people cannot walk together otherwise you’ll be considered dangerous.”

However, he said he and his friends were loath to leave their apartment as they were still scared, especially given that they were foreigners.

“I have not seen any Africans being aggressed personally, but I don’t think it’s the most safe thing to do right now… we don’t want to put ourselves in danger.”

The Ukrainian wife of one of his friends had gone out to find food – she couldn’t find any at the supermarket but approached an aid association.

“She came back with some potatoes… she explained the situation [to the association] and they gave us a little bit of [potatoes] and milk too.”

In total he said there were 12 people at the flat at which he was staying, 15 others staying nearby in a block with a basement and 25 African students remaining in university residences.

source: bbc