Russia to bar Ghanaian recruits, Accra says after summit

Russia has agreed to stop Ghanaians from fighting in its war in Ukraine, Ghana’s government said in a statement reported by Africanews on Nov. 2, after President John Mahama raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a Moscow summit.

The pledge, if carried out, would address a problem that has cost at least 62 Ghanaian lives. Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in August that 62 Ghanaians had died and 15 others who travelled to Russia remained missing, according to Graphic Online.

Africanews reported that Putin gave the assurance at the Russia-Africa summit last week and that he would bar Ghanaians from taking part, whether through irregular recruitment or voluntary enlistment. The account comes from Accra’s statement. We could not find a Russian government confirmation, and Moscow has not published the terms of any ban.

Africanews said more than 270 Ghanaians had fought for Russia as of mid-August. Ghana said last month its citizens were being “tricked” into joining the Russian war effort and urged Moscow to do more to stop it.

Ghana is not alone. Africanews reported that Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon and The Gambia have also complained that their citizens were lured to fight under false promises of work or study. Ukrainian officials said last week that a Botswanan recruited through social media was killed in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

In August, Ablakwa announced after three days of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow had agreed to double scholarships for Ghanaian students from 120 to 240 a year, prioritizing artificial intelligence, engineering, petroleum sciences and pharmaceuticals.

The recruitment pledge came as Mahama also used the Moscow summit to announce energy plans. “We have initiated discussions with Rosatom on the establishment of Ghana’s first nuclear power station,” he told the gathering on Oct. 29, according to the Ghana News Agency. No capacity, site, cost or timetable was announced, so the statement describes talks and not a contract.

Mahama recalled that the Soviet Union supplied Ghana with a two-megawatt research reactor in 1964, and that Ghanaian nuclear scientists were trained in Russia to operate it, Graphic Online reported. He also invited Russian companies to partner in agro-processing, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals and transport, and called for trade settlements in local currencies and digital payment systems.

The summit shows how African governments are balancing ties with Moscow against the harm done to their citizens by the war. For Canadian readers, the story connects to our earlier reporting on Russia’s push in Africa and the war in Ukraine, including how Madagascar’s junta has leaned closer to Russia and on the latest U.S.-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks.

What happens next depends on whether Moscow publishes or enforces the ban. Ghana has said it will keep pressing the issue.

Via Africanews, Graphic Online and the Ghana News Agency.

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