Zambian student killed in Ukraine after serving time in Russian prison

In April 2020, Nyirenda was found guilty of drug possession and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Kakubo met with the victim's family and promised to provide details as soon as Russian authorities provided Zambia with information.

Zambia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that a Zambian national, who was previously serving a prison sentence in a prison on the outskirts of Moscow, died in the war in Ukraine.

This was reported by the BBC.

A copy of the statement by Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo is published in his Twitter account by journalist Samira Savlani.

The journalists report:

Zambia's foreign ministry does not specify what crimes he was convicted of, but reports that he received a 9.5-year sentence in April 2020. Nyirenda had previously studied nuclear plant engineering at the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute (MEPhI).

Zambia has demanded an explanation over the death in Ukraine of a student jailed in Russia. The African country's prime minister, Stanley Kakubo, said his office had demanded that Moscow explain how 23-year-old MEPhI student Nathan Nyirenda ended up in the war.