When the body of Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda was returned to Zambia last year, it should have led to closure for his grieving family. Instead, the controversy surrounding his death on the battlefield in Ukraine has only deepened.
When the body of Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda was returned to Zambia last year, it should have led to closure for his grieving family. Instead, the controversy surrounding his death on the battlefield in Ukraine has only deepened.
The 23-year-old was a student at a Moscow university when he was arrested while working as a courier for carrying a package containing drugs, and sentenced to nine years in prison.
His family say he had no idea what was in the package. After Russia invaded Ukraine last February, the mercenary outfit Wagner offered early release to prisoners in exchange for fighting on the front lines.
In September, Nyirenda was killed in the fighting in Ukraine. His remains were repatriated to Zambia on 11 December. But his family are not convinced that the remains are actually his.
lorence Nyirenda (R) mother of Zambian student Lemekhani Nyireda, who died in the conflict in Ukraine last September, is consoled by relatives as his coffin arrives at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on December 11, 2022. (Photo by SALIM DAWOOD / AFP)
“When the coffin was opened, they only found pieces of bones that were assembled into a skeleton, there was no flesh,” said a source close to the family. A DNA test was carried out in South Africa but the results were inconclusive.
The Nyirendas plan to bury their son on the family farm in the Chongwe district east of Lusaka, but cannot do so until the identity of the remains is confirmed.
Last week, The Chanzo reported that Nemes Tarimo, a young Tanzanian studying in Moscow, had also been killed on the front lines in Ukraine after being released from a Russian prison.
This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.