Kinshasa, March 3rd, 2022 (CPA) – The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs Christophe Lutundula, reassured Congolese students in Ukraine, the scene of intense bombardments, that their situation is under control and the Head of State, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi and the government watch over it.
Christophe Lutundula, who declared it on Monday, during an exchange by videoconference, on the instructions of the Head of State, with a group of Congolese students regularly enrolled in different courses at the University of Sumy in the city of Soumy, in the North-East of Ukraine, reassured them of the full support of the government of the Republic.
« I am in constant contact with the authorities of this university, mainly the rector, and I have obtained from him detailed information on the security of Congolese students », indicated Christophe Lutundula before calling on their parents to calm down and to reassure them that « DRC will spare no effort to guarantee the safe evacuation of Congolese students from Ukraine ».
« The lives of your children are out of danger », he said, adding that the university authorities have decided to keep them, taking into account the curfew while waiting for the possibility of a humanitarian corridor in order to evacuate them to the places safer.
« Following the absence of a Congolese embassy in Kiev, it was the Congolese embassy in Moscow which also managed Congolese interests in Ukraine, » said a source from the Ministry in charge of Foreign Affairs, adding that today, Congolese students in Ukraine, whose number has not yet been determined, depend on DRC Embassy in Prague.
According to the same source, the Congolese authorities also exchange with international institutions such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Refugee Agency (HCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and others.
“International protocols exist and there is no reason why the Congolese should not benefit from them”, inform these sources. ACP)
