Zambia seeks explanation from Russia on death of national on Ukraine warfront

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) - Zambia said Monday that it has written to Russian authorities seeking urgent information about the death of a 23-year-old Zambian citizen on the Ukraine warfront.

Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, a Zambian government sponsored student in Russia, is said to have died on Sept. 22 this year, information which only came to the southern African nation’s knowledge on Nov. 9.

“The Zambian government has requested the Russian authorities to urgently provide information on the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen serving a prison sentence in Moscow could have been recruited in Ukraine and subsequently lose his life,” Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo told reporters in the capital, Lusaka.

Kakubo said that Nyirenda, one of 711 Zambian students in Russia, was studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute but in April 2020 was convicted and sentenced to nine years and six months in prison for being found in possession of drugs.

“Through the Zambian embassy in Moscow, the ministry established that Mr. Nyirenda passed away on September 22, 2022 in Ukraine. His remains have since been transported to the Russian border town of Rostov in readiness for repatriation to Zambia,” he said, adding the deceased had served just over two years of his prison term.

Kakubo said he remained in touch with Nyirenda’s family to provide more details surrounding his death while discouraging parents and guardians of repatriated Zambian students from Ukraine from sending their children back to that country as the security situation remains tense.