South Africans urged to avoid Polish borders

South Africans have been urged to avoid the Polish borders because officials there are inundated with people seeking to flee Ukraine.

A video shared on social media by a group assisting South Africans to leave the country has warned that Ukrainian police are stopping foreign nationals from exiting the country, particularly at the Medyka border with Poland in Ukraine’s north-west.

South African envoys in both countries are seeking to assist South Africans to leave the country.

Kelebogile Makoro who is a South African stuck at the Medyka border crossing has posted her ordeal: “We’re at the border Medyka and Poland, this is the separation that has been happening whereas Ukrainians are being treated better or rather African aren’t, we’ve been pushed, we’ve been shoved. We are denied access and there are so many of us compared to the Ukrainians. Ukrainians get special treatment while the Africans are waiting outside in the cold in big herds. You get people from Congo around here, a lot of Africans, you get Africans from Rwanda here, it’s just a mess at the moment.”

In the video below, a South African student who is stranded in Ukraine, Ansuria Moodley, speaks about what is happening there:

However, the South African government says there hasn’t been any instruction to evacuate South Africans from Ukraine and Russia.

Nearly 200 Ukrainians, including children, have been killed in Russia’s invasion of the country a few days ago.

South Africa has meanwhile called for a cessation of hostility and for warring parties to return to negotiations.

Pretoria has strong historical ties with Russia, as both countries are members of the BRICS economic bloc.

Africans at border in Poland. #sabcnews #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/yQiB0PrUa9

— Sophie Mokoena (@Sophie_Mokoena) February 27, 2022

But speaking Modise says for now no South African had been told to leave the two countries.

Africans at border in Poland. #sabcnews #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/yQiB0PrUa9

— Sophie Mokoena (@Sophie_Mokoena) February 27, 2022

President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated South Africa’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine by Russian soldiers that the conflict could be resolved through mediation.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a two-day PEC meeting of the ANC in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, Ramaphosa said that war was devastating.