Some Ghanaian students from Gaziantep University in Türkiye are stranded after a massive earthquake struck the city on Monday, killing about 10,000 people.
According to reports, the students’ attempts to obtain bus tickets from the Ghana-Turkey embassy in order to move from the earthquake-affected area have proven futile.
The students indicated that instead of getting them the tickets, Ghana’s embassy in that country said it was currently seeking financial clearance to transport them to safety.
As a result the students are compelled to purchase the tickets themselves.
One of the students, Abdullah Rabiu, said: “What baffles me is that the Embassy said, we were to purchase the tickets ourselves for a refund [later] with an excuse that a letter must be written for them to get an approval for funds to purchase the tickets for us. Life is really important, so we are looking at how we are going to cope. Our lives are at stake because there are aftershocks. Anything can happen because we are just trying to survive.”
Meanwhile, Ghana’s Ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton had st,ated that Ghanaian students who are in areas affected by the earthquake are safe and are being catered for.
She revealed that even though a state of emergency has been declared and reaching out to some Ghanaians in those affected areas was tough, her outfit has been informed by the President of the Ghanaian Students in Turkey that all students have been accounted for.
In a related developmemt, Ghanaian winger Christian Atsu, remains missing in Turkey after devastating earthquakes struck the country and Syria, his club has told news agencies, despite earlier reports that he had been rescued.
On Tuesday, Atsu, 31, was reported to have been pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Turkey’s southern Hatay province and transported to the hospital with injuries following Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake and its aftershocks.
