WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Six Polish college students and a lecturer from the Warsaw College who have 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 residence this week.
The ministry’s spokesman, Pawel Wronski, mentioned the seven Polish residents have had their passports, laptops and belongings returned and have been staying on the college campus within the northern Nigerian metropolis of Kano, ready for the journey again.
The seven have been in northern Nigeria to participate in a program to review the Hausa language. They have 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 state of affairs was a misunderstanding. The seven have been held at a resort in Kano whereas Warsaw was actively in search of their launch.
“Our college students have been on the flawed time on the flawed place,” Wronski mentioned, urging folks to be cautious when touring to distant areas.
Wronski mentioned the ministry posts warnings and recommendation to vacationers on its web site, together with a warning in regards to the Nigerian state of Kano, the place it described the political state of affairs as being “fairly sophisticated.”
Professional-Russian sentiment is uncommon within the Central European nation, which has unhealthy recollections of struggling below Russian rule up to now. Polish society is in the present day deeply crucial of Russian aggression in Ukraine and strongly backs Ukraine.
The protests in Nigeria noticed 1000’s, principally younger folks, rally towards the worst cost-of-living disaster in a technology and towards alleged unhealthy governance that has stifled improvement though the nation is a prime oil producer.
In a number of northern states, just a few protesters have been seen waving Russian flags, a pattern that till now was solely widespread in Africa in coup-hit international locations the place pro-Russian sentiments are rising off the again of coups by militaries severing ties with the West.
