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Tunisian students caught up in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have shared horrific experiences of fleeing the fighting while abandoning the lives they had spent years building.
This Monday, an aircraft carrying 73 Tunisian expatriates from Ukraine returned to Tunisia. The fourth evacuation flight organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fly out detained Tunisian people since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 was operated by Tunisair.
Last week, an army plane brought 106 people back to Tunis, Tunisia’s capital, and another two flights flew a total of 327 people back in one day.
According to Tarek Aloui, the president of a Tunisian community organisation in Ukraine, almost 75% of nationals have been repatriated thus far. When the war broke out in Ukraine, more than 1,500 Tunisians were residing there.
“Until the last moments, before I escaped from Ukraine, I truly believed the war would end soon and that I would stay there,” Omar Abidi, a 25-year-old Sousse resident.
He returned to his country last week after completing his fifth year of medical school in Dnipro, central Ukraine.
Abidi said he heard a tremendous explosion in the early hours of February 24, while he was sleeping, as Russia attacked Ukraine.
“By 5 a.m. local time, I saw everyone panicking on the street, queuing at cash machines, collecting food and medicine,” he said. “Basic items were fast running out at grocery stores, and many of us couldn’t even find bread or water.”
When the conflict broke out, he left his apartment to live with his fiancée and a few other students in a shared flat, where they could stick together and aid each other.
“We were sitting in front of the TV, smoking shisha, playing PlayStation, conversing, and taking our minds off what was going on,” Abidi explained. “All we were attempting to do was be positive while staying watchful.”
The students slept with their clothing on and the front door to their flat open in case they needed to flee to air raid shelters.