Duda disclosed this while briefing journalists at the front porch of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after a closed door session with Buhari.

According to him, the MoU becomes necessary in light of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and the consequent food crisis.

Describing Russia’s aggression as “unjustified” Duda noted that his country is supporting affected states and its partner countries to boost agricultural yield.

In the energy dimension, he noted that Nigeria, being rich in gas, will ensure a steady increase of supply to Poland and the rest of the European Union.

“I hope we’re going to see some fruit in this memorandum we have signed,” he said.

On his part, Buhari thanked the Polish Government for opening its arms to Nigerian students whose studies were truncated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis; offering them opportunities for continued education.

A statement on Wednesday, from the Embassy of Poland in Nigeria, titled: ‘Poland stands with Ukraine – the spirit of Polish solidarity reborn,’ said Poland has opened its borders to people fleeing the war since February 24.

Poland explained that it went to great lengths and undertook every effort to ensure all the refugees received comprehensive assistance.

The statement read, “Since February 24, Poland opened its borders to over 2 million people fleeing Ukraine from the Russian aggression. Although most refugees are obviously Ukrainian, there are also thousands of third-country nationals who found shelter in Poland. Polish authorities let in everyone, irrespective of nationality, race or creed.

Many of those who crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border were African nationals, including more than 2,000 Nigerians.

“The government of Poland went to great lengths and undertook every effort to ensure all refugees received meaningful, effective and comprehensive assistance.

“Meals were distributed at border crossings, the transport was provided to receptive points where further assistance and help were provided by local government authorities. Moreover, country legislation was amended to cater for the needs of refugees and facilitate the provision of assistance.”

The embassy further said that the refugees were guaranteed free medical care, adding that Poland accepted and helped terminally ill refugees, the physically challenged and orphans.

“Ukrainian children are given the opportunity to resume learning in Polish primary and secondary schools.

“All Ukrainian citizens can apply for a Polish national identity number which entitles the holder to benefit from social welfare and medical care and many other privileges on a par with Polish citizens,” the statement noted.

The humanitarian agency praised the neighbouring countries for showing overwhelming compassion towards their “extreme plight”.

More than 10 million people — over a quarter of the population in regions under government control — are now thought to have fled their homes, including the millions of internally displaced people.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 3,489,644 Ukrainians had fled the country since Russia invaded on February 24 — a figure up 100,600 on Sunday’s update.

“Over the last four weeks, the world has watched in disbelief. Countless lives have been lost while millions of others have been completely upended,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said.

“As if to counter the despair, we have also witnessed overwhelming acts of welcome and compassion as neighbouring countries, particularly local responders, have opened their hearts and homes to Ukrainians.

“Millions around the world were rightly moved by the extreme plight of the Ukrainian people,” he said, citing their “pain and sorrow… loss and anguish”, and “relief at finding safety and trepidation of an uncertain future”.

Women and children account some 90 percent of those who have fled. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are eligible for military call-up and cannot leave.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, said more than 1.5 million children are among those who have fled abroad.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 186,000 people from third countries had fled Ukraine to neighbouring states.

As of Wednesday, some 6.48 million people were estimated to be internally displaced within Ukraine, according to UN and related agencies, following an IOM representative survey.

“Millions more may be affected if the war does not end,” IOM said.

Before Russia invaded, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in the regions under government control, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east.

Here is a breakdown of neighbouring countries that have welcomed Ukrainian refugees, according to UNHCR:

– Poland –

Six in every 10 Ukrainian refugees — 2,083,854 so far — have crossed the Polish border, according to UNHCR’s latest figures.

Many of those heading west from Ukraine into Poland, Hungary and Slovakia then travel further on into other countries in Europe’s Schengen open-borders zone.

“We estimate that a large number of people have moved onwards to other countries,” UNHCR said.

Before the crisis, around 1.5 million Ukrainians lived in EU member Poland, the vast majority of them working.

Some 264,000 people have crossed the frontier in the opposite direction, Polish border guards said.

They are mostly those returning to fight but also others seeking to care for elderly relatives or to bring their families out to Poland.

– Romania –

UNHCR said 535,461 Ukrainians had made their way into EU member Romania, including a large number who have crossed over from Moldova, wedged between Romania and Ukraine.

The vast majority are thought to have made their way onto other countries further into Europe.

– Moldova –

The Moldovan border is the nearest to the major port city of Odessa.

UNHCR said 365,197 Ukrainians had crossed into the non-EU state, one of the poorest in Europe. Most transit through the small nation, en route westwards to Romania and beyond.

– Hungary –

The number of Ukrainian refugees who have crossed into Hungary has reached 312,120, UNHCR said.

– Slovakia –

A quarter of a million people have made it across Ukraine’s shortest border into Slovakia, the UNHCR said, at 250,036 Ukrainian refugees.

– Russia –

Some 231,764 refugees have sought shelter in Russia since the invasion began.

In addition, UNHCR said 50,000 people had crossed into Russia from the separatist-held pro-Russian Donetsk and Lugansk regions of eastern Ukraine between February 21 and 23.

– Belarus –

And 3,765 refugees have made it north to Belarus, UNHCR says.

She beat USA, Indonesia, Mexico, Northern Ireland, and Cote d’Ivoire to emerge winner early on Thursday, March 17.

Miss USA, Shree Saini, who is an Indian-American, emerged first runner up, while Miss Cote d’Ivoire, Olivia Yace, emerged second runner up.

When I heard my name I was shocked, I still can’t believe it. I am honoured to wear the Miss World crown and can’t wait to get to work. I will remember this amazing chapter in Puerto Rico for the rest of my life,” Karolina Biewleska was quoted by the pageant organisers.

According to missworld.com, Karolina, who is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Management wishes to pursue her PhD. She is currently working as a model and hopes to become a motivational speaker.

The Miss World 2021 pageant was postponed from December due to the Coronavirus pandemic

The flight was postponed due to a delay in preparing passengers for the check-in process but has now been scheduled for Friday morning.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, Bolaji Akinremi, made this known on Thursday.

About 2,000 Nigerians have fled Ukraine, amid a Russian invasion, to neigbouring countries, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.

The Federal Government on Wednesday said it has approved $8.5m for the evacuation of citizens.

According to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, the countries where the pickup flights would be headed include – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.

Two flights from Air Peace and one from Max Air are expected to carry out the evacuation exercise.

Some fleeing Africans reportedly said that officials at the border prevented them from entering into Poland for several days, while white refugees were let into the country.

This development sparked outrage among social media users as videos of the alleged discrimination went viral.

Ukraine is a destination for thousands of young African students, including Nigerians, owing to its high standard of education and low costs.

NAN reported that the Nigerian Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, has called on his Ukrainian counterpart to clarify the situation, expressing concern at the news, especially as it affected Nigerian citizens, and promised to investigate the matter.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has, however, stated that Ukrainian border guards had been instructed to allow all foreigners to leave.

While the South African Foreign Minister, Clayson Monyela, also tweeted, on Sunday, that South African students and other Africans trying to flee Ukraine were not treated fairly at the border between Ukraine and Poland, Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, in a statement released on Monday, said that students from Ghana had not had any problems leaving the country, NAN reports.

More than 30 million voters were choosing lawmakers in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and in the 100-seat Senate.

Law and Justice is the first party since the fall of communism to break with the austerity of previous governments, whose free-market policies took a moribund communist economy and transformed it into one of Europe’s most dynamic.

Critics fear that four more years for the party will reverse the democratic achievements of this Central European nation, citing an erosion of judicial independence and of minority rights since the party took power in 2015.

Polls over the past week gave Law and Justice between 40 percent and 45 percent support. The second-strongest force, the centrist pro-EU Civic Coalition, whose biggest party is Civic Platform, polled at around 25 percent of the vote. An alliance of three left-wing parties has polled between 10 percent and 15 percent.

Turnout at 5 p.m. local time was 45.94 percent, or almost 7 percentage points higher than at the same time in the 2015 election, according to the State Electoral Commission. The highest turnout of above 50 percent was in Warsaw and Poznan, cities traditionally supporting Civic Platform.

Law and Justice’s overhaul of the judicial system has given the party unprecedented power over Poland’s courts. The EU has repeatedly warned that the rule of law is threatened and has sanctioned the country, preventing some of the changes, but not all.

Exit polls will be announced when the polls close Sunday at 9 p.m. local time but official results are not expected until early in the week.

Prosecutors said that a gang of eight citizens of Poland – five men and three women – preyed on the homeless, former convicts and alcoholics in Poland and trickily got them to Britain with false promises of well-paid work.

Moreover, the victims – believed to number more than 400 in the West Midlands – were forced to live in rat-infested houses and work really menial jobs, making about 50 pence or about 63 cents for a day’s work. However, their masters earned some $2.5 million and lived very luxurious lifestyles.

The so-called “masters” – who the police say are members and associates of two crime families, according to the BBC – have since been convicted of slavery, trafficking and money-laundering offenses during two trials.

Reporting restrictions were lifted Friday, allowing details of the harrowing network’s collapse to be published. The accounts of more than 90 victims were heard by jurors, but it is believed that at least 350 more were exploited by the gang.

“This was trafficking and exploitation on a massive scale; this gang treated these people, their fellow countrymen, as commodities purely for their own greed,” West Midlands Police Det. Chief Inspector Nick Dale said in a statement.

“What they did was abhorrent: they subjected victims to a demi-life of misery and poverty. They forced them into work and, if they objected, they were beaten or threatened with violence and told family members back home would be attacked.”