(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU-BASOTHO students marooned in the coronavirus-hit Wuhan City in China say the government has abandoned them.
There are over 100 students in different cities in China but the complaints are coming mostly from those in Hubei province where the virus was first reported on December 31.
Wuhan City has been on lockdown for the past few weeks as the Chinese government battles to contain the virus that has killed more than 3 000 people and infected over 90 000 worldwide.
Stuck in the city and province are dozens of Basotho students who say their pleas for Lesotho government help have fallen on deaf ears.
The students have been locked in their rooms for the past five weeks. During that time food prices in the city have increased, wiping out their small allowances.
For instance, the price of a kilogramme of meat has jumped from 27 Yuan to over 57 Yuan.
The students also want the Lesotho government to help them buy face masks.
Others say they want to return home but the government won't help. They are now alleging that they have been caught up in a political tiff between the All Basotho Convention (ABC) and the Alliance of Democrats (AD).
Napo Mohapi, a PhD student at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, recently wrote to the Lesotho Embassy in China threatening to complain to Prime Minister Thomas Thabane.
Mohapi said the embassy and the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) cannot agree on how to assist them.
The reason, Mohapi alleged, is that the embassy is controlled by the ABC while the AD seems to be calling the shots at the NMDS.
'The NMDS wanted to help only the students it sponsors but the Lesotho Embassy could not allow that discrimination so a cheap political fight ensued,' Mohapi said.
The students are sponsored by the NMDS, on a Chinese government scholarship or self-sponsored.
'Lesotho politics is playing a major role in hurting us,' Mohapi said.
He said 95 percent of workers at the Embassy are ABC members while the NMDS is headed by the AD.
'Now AD thinks by helping us they will be giving ABC political mileage and we are in danger,' Mohapi said, adding that he will write to the Prime Minister this week.
Mohapi has been quarantined for 42 days and has not left his room.
'We were told that the government refused to assist with extra money or even mere masks,' Mohapi said.
'I am currently wearing a mask given by the school three weeks ago and I will have to get a new one.'
Mohapi said they want to come home but China made it hard for countries to evacuate people from Wuhan.
He said China wanted direct flights to pick up people straight to their home countries. The Lesotho Consulate in China, Motsamai Talla, said they are assisting the students. 'Some complained about food supply shortages and we solved the matter and we are continuing to do so,' Talla said.
He said they also managed to help students with sanitizers and masks.
'Officers are always ready and alert to give immediate responses.'
Talla said the outbreak led to a spike in food prices but the Chinese government is helping.
'All challenges beyond us as the Embassy, we have communicated to our Foreign Affairs Ministry to help,' Talla said.
He said the government is committed to helping the students. He said the embassy has physiologists ready to help the students cope with the crisis.
He however said an evacuation will be hard because schools have reopened and students are learning from their rooms.
'The applications used by their schools are only compatible in China so going home will pose problems,' he said.
He said countries like Botswana and South Africa have since tried to evacuate their students but failed.
Nkheli Liphoto
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