Ghana’s foreign affairs minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said that at least 55 Ghanaians have been killed while fighting in the war in Ukraine, with two others currently being held as prisoners of war, describing the figures as “depressing and frightening” and warning that Ghana “cannot turn a blind eye to these heartbreaking statistics.”
Speaking during an official visit to Kyiv, Ablakwa said Ukrainian authorities had informed him that about 272 Ghanaians are believed to have been lured into the conflict since 2022, although he did not specify which side the Ghanaians had been fighting for. He stressed that the casualty figures were “not just numbers” but represented “human lives, the hope of many Ghanaian families and our nation,” adding that the scale of the losses made Ghana the African country with the highest number of officially confirmed deaths in the Ukraine-Russia war so far.
While local media in Cameroon have reported that 94 Cameroonian nationals have died in the conflict, the authorities there have not commented on those figures, meaning Ghana’s toll remains the highest formally acknowledged by a government on the continent.
During the visit, Ablakwa also urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to release the two Ghanaian prisoners of war, whom he said were captured while fighting for Russia, arguing that they were “victims of manipulation, of disinformation, misinformation, of criminal trafficking networks.” He thanked Ukraine for respecting international law in its handling of the detainees, saying Ghana had received reports that they were in good health, had not been tortured and had not suffered any inhumane treatment since their capture.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, confirmed that both sides had discussed the matter “frankly,” including the possibility of returning the prisoners to Ghana. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that anyone fighting for Russia would be treated as an enemy combatant and that surrendering to Ukrainian forces was the only safe route out of the war, although Ukraine itself has previously faced criticism for attempts to recruit foreign nationals, including Africans, to fight on its side.
The Ghanaian minister’s comments come amid growing concern across Africa about the recruitment of nationals into the conflict, particularly to fight for Russia. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that more than 1,700 people from 36 African countries had been recruited to fight for Russia since the war began. In Kenya, a national was charged on Thursday with luring young men to Russia with promises of job opportunities, only for them to end up fighting in Ukraine; the accused, Festus Arasa Omwamba, denied the charges.
A report released last week by Kenya’s National Intelligence Service said about 1,000 Kenyans had been recruited to fight for Russia in its four-year war against Ukraine, claims that Russia’s embassy in Kenya has denied, while maintaining that Russian law allows foreign nationals who are legally in the country to voluntarily enlist in its armed forces.
South Africa, meanwhile, said on Thursday that two of its citizens had been killed in Ukraine, with another 15 repatriated in the past week and two more still in Russia receiving treatment for what Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola described as “very severe” injuries, while at least one Kenyan is also known to have died in the conflict.
In response to the growing toll, Ablakwa said the Ghanaian government was committed to “tracking and dismantling all dark web illegal recruitment schemes” and to launching intensive public awareness campaigns to prevent young people from being drawn into the war. Emphasising that “this is not our war,” he said Ghana could not allow its youth “to become human shields for others,” underscoring Accra’s determination to work with international partners to curb trafficking networks and misinformation that target vulnerable young Africans with false promises of employment or opportunity abroad.