![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/ukraine-war-lemekhani-nyirendas-zambian-family-demands-answers-from-russia/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127657773_mediaitem127657769.jpg&description=Image source, Zambians in Moscow/ facebookImage caption, The death of a 23-year-old Zambian student who had been recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine has left the family devastated, his older sister has told the BBC.It's not just that he has died but also the unanswered questions over the young man's brutal death in a foreign land.Lemekhani Nyirenda was serving a drugs-related prison sentence in Russia but was freed and deployed to the front lines in Ukraine."We want to know how he was conscripted without his family being notified? Was he coerced?" asked Muzang'alu Nyirenda.The family felt "robbed" by her brother's death, she added.Zambia's Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo announced on Monday that Mr Nyirenda, who had been studying at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, was serving a nine-year prison sentence for a drug offence.He said Mr Nyirenda was killed on the front lines in September, but Russian authorities had only just informed Zambia of the death. Mr Kakubo said that Zambia had demanded answers over the student's death and why he had been sent to Ukraine. Most Zambians are shocked by the news, but also frustrated that the government has not shared more information to explain the circumstances that led to the student being deployed to Ukraine. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The war in Ukraine is said to have claimed tens of thousands of livesAccording to Ms Nyirenda, her brother travelled to Russia in 2019 to study nuclear engineering on a government sponsorship, a partnership between the two countries which dates back many years. "There is so much we don't know. Why didn't the Zambian government know he was being sent to war to fight?" his older sister told the BBC."The people that took him to that war looked down on us as a family, he was nothing to them. They used him," she said.Mr Nyirenda was working as a part-time courier when he was arrested in 2020 with a parcel containing drugs, his sister said. "We believe he didn't know){kind=link}
The death of a 23-year-old Zambian student who had been recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine has left the family devastated, his older sister has told the BBC.
It’s not just that he has died but also the unanswered questions over the young man’s brutal death in a foreign land.
Lemekhani Nyirenda was serving a drugs-related prison sentence in Russia but was freed and deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
“We want to know how he was conscripted without his family being notified? Was he coerced?” asked Muzang’alu Nyirenda.
The family felt “robbed” by her brother’s death, she added.