Ghana: Accra asks Moscow to curb the recruitment of its nationals.
The Ghanaian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, requested on Monday, August 17, 2026, in Moscow that Ghana and Russia cooperate to stop the recruitment of Ghanaian nationals intended to fight in the war in Ukraine. The request was made during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
SUMMARY
At the end of the discussions, the head of Ghana’s diplomacy stated that 62 Ghanaians had died and 15 others were missing after joining Russian forces. This toll is attributed to Ghanaian authorities and has not been independently verified.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa described these recruitments as illegal and claimed that young people were lured by misleading promises before being sent to the front. He indicated that Moscow had committed to working with Accra to put an end to these practices.
Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia would consider the Ghanaian request. Russian authorities had previously denied illegally recruiting African nationals, while several governments on the continent reported cases of citizens being drawn in by false job offers.
A Ghanaian toll revised upward
In February, after a visit to Kyiv, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa reported that 272 Ghanaians were presumed to have been recruited since 2022, with 55 dead and two prisoners of war. The figures announced in Moscow brought the reported death toll to 62 and added 15 people missing.
Reuters had then reported that men from several African countries had been lured to Russia by job promises before finding themselves on the Ukrainian front. The Ghanaian minister announced awareness-raising actions and the dismantling of recruitment networks operating, in particular, online.
The three-day visit to Russia was also meant to define new areas of political and economic cooperation between Accra and Moscow. The two ministers discussed bilateral relations as well as security issues in West Africa and the Sahel.
Mediation between ECOWAS and the Sahel Alliance
Sergey Lavrov praised the efforts of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama to bring together the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Sahel States Alliance, formed by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The Russian minister also announced that Moscow planned to sign a memorandum of cooperation with ECOWAS, including a security component. No timeline or detailed content of this agreement was made public at the end of the meeting.
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