ENTTEBE , Uganda (AFP) — A group of 43 Ugandan students have spoken of their trauma after fleeing the United States (US) and Israeli bombing campaign in Iran and returning to Uganda on Thursday.

“I am lost for words,” said Sharon Twiine, 29, who had been studying international relations at Ahlul Bayt International University in Tehran when the war broke out.

The Ugandan ambassador organised their escape by bus to the Turkish border and then on to Istanbul, where they caught a flight home.

“It was scary, traumatising, and I wouldn’t wish for anyone to experience” such a thing, Twiine told reporters at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda.

Another of the students, Oscar Nyegyema, said a site near their university was hit by an air strike.

“We could hear the ground trembling; we could hear the ground shake. We were all scared, we were all feeling devastated, we really did not know whether we could make it out,” he said.

Despite the trauma, Nyegyema said he would return to finish his programme in Iran as soon as possible.

Some Ugandan students chose to stay despite the offer of return from their government.

“The truth is for these students, they believe that if they return home, the two years spent in their four-year degree study may go to waste because they may not be able to afford the ticket back to the university,” said Aloisius Ssegawa, another of the students who returned on Thursday.

Twiine said she was “traumatised” by the experience.

“I love to study, I love to practice what I will learn from Iran, but I think I will have to get therapy first,” she said.