55 Ghanaians killed after being lured into Ukraine war: Govt

Some 55 Ghanaians have been killed while fighting in Ukraine, the country's foreign minister said on Friday, promising a crackdown on illicit recruitment schemes luring citizens to Russia under false pretences.

A growing number of African countries have in recent months begun to discover that their citizens have been duped into fighting for the Russian army, and either killed or captured on the battlefield.

Ghana's Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa travelled to Kyiv this week to discuss the fate of two Ghanaians taken prisoner on the frontline.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Sybiga, told him that more than 1,780 Africans from 36 countries were fighting Ukraine as part of Russia's forces.

Ablakwa said on Wednesday that his fellow countrymen were "victims of manipulation, misinformation of criminal trafficking networks".

"We were informed that 272 Ghanaians are believed to have been lured into battle since 2022 for which an estimated 55 have been killed and two captured as prisoners of war," he wrote on X.

"As a responsible government, we cannot turn a blind eye to these heartbreaking statistics. These are not just numbers, they represent human lives, the hope of many Ghanaian families and our nation."

The foreign minister said the government was "committed to tracking and dismantling all dark web illegal recruitment schemes operating within our jurisdiction".

"This is not our war and we cannot allow our youth to become human shields for others," he added.

Directly entangled

The All Eyes on Wagner monitoring project said in early February that the recruitment of African nationals was "the core of a deliberate and organised strategy" by Russia to bolster its dwindling military ranks as the war drags on.

The biggest contingents come from Egypt (361 men) and Cameroon (335), then Ghana (234), the report said. All are recruited by "transnational networks that exploit persistent socio-economic vulnerabilities" in Africa.

AFP reporters met prisoners of war from Kenya, Togo, Cameroon and Nigeria during a visit to detention centre in Ukraine late last year.

Four Kenyans who made it home told AFP this month they had met dozens of Africans in training camps in Russia or on the front line, from Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa.

All said they were promised lucrative civilian jobs in Russia but were instead forced to sign contracts with the army and sent to fight against Ukraine with limited training.

A key figure in a network that sent more than 1,000 Kenyans to fight for the Russian army was charged on Thursday with human trafficking, the state prosecutor said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa this week expressed his "heartfelt gratitude" to Vladimir Putin for the return of South Africans lured into fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

Eleven men returned home on Wednesday and four arrived back last week.

Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the circumstances of their recruitment.

Families have accused a daughter of South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, of involvement. She has since resigned her seat as a lawmaker.

Uganda — a Russian ally — has also discovered a network of forced recruitment sending its citizens to fight and die for Moscow, while Gambia and Nigeria have also expressed concern about their nationals involved in foreign conflicts.

"The recruitment scandal makes clear that the Ukraine war is no longer a distant geopolitical issue for African governments," the International Crisis Group said in a new report published on Friday.

"As their citizens become directly entangled in the conflict, leaders could face mounting domestic pressure that makes it more difficult to stick to principles of non-alignment."