Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Foreign Students Afraid, Frustrated in Wuhan

Forest Cong

   WASHINGTON - For the foreign students on lockdown in China where a
   deadly flulike coronavirus has emerged, days are marked by fear,
   frustration and boredom.

   "I wear a mask all the time," said Redwan Mohamed Nur, an accounting
   student who told VOA he is one of 14 Somalis at Wuhan University and
   among 5,000 Africans studying in China.

   "I [am] so scared that I didn't dare to open the window because I'm
   afraid the wind would blow the virus in."

   Wuhan is home to dozens of universities and colleges. On Jan. 23, China
   closed off Wuhan, the center of a deadly outbreak of the coronavirus;16
   cities are locked down, more than 6,000 cases worldwide have been
   confirmed and at least 132 people are dead.

   Stuck in his dorm, he said he has left only once, and that was to walk
   to where school authorities distribute food to foreign students every
   other day. Elsewhere in China, [1]foreign students stay indoors,
   worried of exposure to the coronavirus.

   Nur says the Somalis are a tight knit community. Abdulkadir Mohamed
   Abdi, one of four Somali students at China University of Geosciences,
   is studying petroleum engineering.

   "You can get infected without showing the symptoms," he said.
   "Therefore you are safe to be indoors." But he has run out of foodand
   is planning to go out to find an open supermarket.

   Yassin Abdi Said, a Somali student living in Wuhan, told VOA the
   Somalis were remaining calm, but "the situation in Wuhan is very, very
   dangerous. The city is on lockdown, most shops are closed. Authorities
   are not allowing anyone to go out or come in."

   Indonesian students -- Yuliannova Lestari Chaniago, Patmawaty Taibe and
   Gerard Ertandy -- sent VOA a message from Wuhan's Central China Normal
   University, saying they asked their government to evacuate them
   immediately to their home country.

   In Jakarta, the Indonesian Air Force has said they have three airplanes
   to help evacuate Indonesians from Wuhan, but are waiting for the
   Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a decision. Wuhan is home to 102
   Indonesians, most of them students.

   "We -- Yuli, Eva and Gerald -- are asking to be evacuated immediately
   from the city of Wuhan as this city is no longer healthy for us," said
   Yuliannova Lestari Chaniago, 26, an international relations student.

References

   1. https://qz.com/africa/1791786/african-countries-brace-for-coronavirus/

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