WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Six Polish college students and a lecturer from the Warsaw College who had been detained in Nigeria throughout protests there have been launched, the Polish overseas ministry mentioned Wednesday. They’re in good well being and will probably be returning dwelling this week.
The ministry’s spokesman, Pawel Wronski, mentioned the seven Polish residents have had their passports, laptops and belongings returned and had been staying on the college campus within the northern Nigerian metropolis of Kano, ready for the journey again.
The seven had been in northern Nigeria to participate in a program to review the Hausa language. They had been detained earlier this month within the state of Kano throughout a political protest, allegedly for carrying Russian flags, Nigeria’s secret service mentioned.
Officers in Poland, which has frosty relations with Russia, mentioned that was unlikely and that the entire scenario was a misunderstanding. The seven had been held at a resort in Kano whereas Warsaw was actively searching for their launch.
“Our college students had been on the flawed time on the flawed place,” Wronski mentioned, urging individuals to be cautious when touring to distant places.
Wronski mentioned the ministry posts warnings and recommendation to vacationers on its web site, together with a warning concerning the Nigerian state of Kano, the place it described the political scenario as being “fairly sophisticated.”
Professional-Russian sentiment is uncommon within the Central European nation, which has unhealthy reminiscences of struggling beneath Russian rule up to now. Polish society is at the moment deeply essential of Russian aggression in Ukraine and strongly backs Ukraine.
The protests in Nigeria noticed 1000’s, largely younger individuals, rally in opposition to the worst cost-of-living disaster in a era and in opposition to alleged unhealthy governance that has stifled improvement despite the fact that the nation is a prime oil producer.
In a number of northern states, just a few protesters had been seen waving Russian flags, a development that till now was solely frequent in Africa in coup-hit nations the place pro-Russian sentiments are rising off the again of coups by militaries severing ties with the West.
