The body of Zambian Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, recruited from pro-Russian forces while in prison and killed on the Ukrainian front, is due to arrive in Lusaka on Sunday 11 December. A nuclear engineering student and home delivery man, he was serving a sentence of some 9 years in prison in a suburb of Moscow, having been sentenced in 2020 after drugs were found in one of his deliveries. He died on September 22 after being drafted into the Wagner Group.
With our regional correspondent, Claire Bargeles
After a telephone exchange with his Russian counterpart, Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo was able to provide Parliament with some additional information on Friday, December 9, about the death of the 23-year-old young man.
It’s in last August that Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda was approached in prison. The Minister explains that he received as justification the fact that ” Russian laws allow offering the possibility of a pardon in exchange for participation in special military operations “.
No mention of Wagner, while the boss of this paramilitary group, Evgueni Prigojine, claimed on Telegram to have himself met the student. Without counting that a video has already shown the group haranguing inmates in a Russian prison.
Zambia is still awaiting more details about how the young man was recruited as a combatant, and the circumstances of his death. Possible compensation for the family is also under discussion between the two governments.
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