Pretoria – There was an outpouring of grief at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Zambia, as the body of 23-year-old Zambian student Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda who was killed in the battlefront in Ukraine, landed in his home country on Sunday, eagerly awaited by mourning relatives and friends.
The Zambian government-sponsored student, was based in Russia, where he was studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPHI).
It remains unclear how the Zambian student ended up joining the Russian forces fighting Ukraine, but media reports suggest that Nyirenda had been arrested on a drug-related offence in Russia and was pardoned by the Moscow authorities on condition he joined the military operation in neighbouring Ukraine.
A statement from Zambia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said Nyirenda’s body was accompanied by Lusaka’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Shadreck Luwita.
A relative, quoted on “Newzroom Afrika”, said the family thought Nyirenda was studying, not fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“It is very, very unfortunate when we heard this. We couldn’t believe, because all the family, we expected that Lemekhani is doing some studies in Russia. When we heard this story, we are very, very shocked,” John Phiri said to journalists.
“Even now, we do not believe that Lemekhani is no more.”
Nyirenda was killed in Ukraine on September 22, but according to reports, the Russian authorities only notified the Zambian government on November 9.
Last month, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was working to ascertain details about the death of the Zambian student on the front-line in Ukraine, “Tass” news agency reported.
Previously, in an interview with the BBC, Nyirenda’s sister Muzang’alu Nyirenda said they want to know how he was conscripted without his family being notified. She also said that one of the questions they are asking themselves is if her brother was coerced.
She said the family felt “robbed” by her brother’s death.
She told the BBC that her brother travelled to Russia in 2019 to study nuclear engineering on a government sponsorship.
IOL