As the death toll from the deadly coronavirus has jumped to 81, hundreds of Ethiopian nationals stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan are demanding to be repatriated. Several countries have promised to repatriate their nationals blocked in China. The United States, UK, France, Japan, and Spain have already mobilised plans to remove their citizens from Wuhan. However, the Ethiopian Embassy in Bejing told Ethiopian students to wait calmly for instruction and updates from the Chinese Government.

Several of the students criticize the limited information given by their government, which did not announce any repatriation arrangements. Yabu Yilma, a student at the Hubei University Of Technology at Wuhan wondered what exactly means waiting calmly and how long that would be. Anxiety is mounting among the small Ethiopian community in Wuhan, four days after their city was in lockdown. «The hardest part is that we don’t know how long it will last,” said another Ethiopian student. “We want to be evacuated as soon as possible, we are living in limited resources,” he said.

The Ethiopian Embassy in Bejing said no Ethiopian had so far been infected. The Embassy has confirmed that there are 291 Ethiopian students are currently trapped in that area. The Embassy on its Facebook page wrote this afternoon that consular officials in Beijing were in close consultation with the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Chongqing and the Wuhan Ethiopian Students Association.