In the markets of Techiman, in Ghana’s Bono East Region, dreams of a better future are as common as the vibrant chatter of traders.
For many young men, the promise of overseas employment offers optimism amid economic hardship. But for some, like 39-year-old Albert (name changed for safety), that hope turned into a nightmare of bloodshed and betrayal.
In January 2023, Albert left his home in Techiman, Ghana, chasing a job opportunity in Russia through an agent that promised stability and a path to citizenship.
Instead, he found himself on the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some other 14 Ghanaian men, also, victims of a sophisticated human trafficking network that preys on the vulnerable are still trapped in the war.
But Albert’s story is not unique. Over the past year, my investigation has uncovered a scary pattern: dozens of Ghanaians, lured by false promises of agricultural or security jobs, have been sent to Russia, only to be coerced into fighting in a war they neither understood nor chose.
Through interviews with victims, families, and experts, as well as analysis of available data, this investigation maps the recruitment network, follows the money trail, and exposes the systemic failures that allow this exploitation to persist.
The recruitment network
The trafficking pipeline begins in Ghana, where economic desperation and high unemployment estimated at 14.7% among youth aged 15-24, according to the International Labour Organization, create fertile ground for exploitation.
Recruiters, often posing as legitimate employment agents, target young men with promises of lucrative jobs abroad. One such figure is Abraham Boakye, known locally as “One Man Supporter,” a charismatic agent who allegedly operates out in the capital, Accra.
My attempts to locate Boakye’s office in the city’s busy Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly, Tesano, led to a shuttered office space and its doors padlocked. Efforts to contact him for an interview through phone calls, messages, and visits to known associates were met with silence, raising questions about his operations and accountability.
Boakye is not alone in this network. According to a source at the Ghana Embassy in Moscow, speaking anonymously due to fear of reprisal, Boakye collaborates with intermediaries, including an Indian translator allegedly linked to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
This translator, reportedly met during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, serves as a bridge between Ghanaian recruiters and Russian handlers. The source claimed, “Boakye brought in 20 people through this connection.
He gets a commission per recruit.” However, this claim remains uncorroborated, as no official documentation or additional sources could confirm the Boakye’s role or the exact financial transactions.
The trafficking route typically begins in Ghana, with recruits traveling through Togo to obscure their journey’s purpose. An immigration officer at the Aflao border to Togo who spoke on anonymity in an interview confirmed that he had interrogated 20 Ghanaian men in August 2024 who attempted to cross.
He said he cautioned them against making the journey, but they insisted on proceeding, claiming that “Abraham Boakye is our agent and everything is under control.” From there, they fly to Kostroma, paying visa and travel fees ranging from GHS
25,000 (approximately $2,443 USD). Upon arrival, recruits are handed over to Russian handlers, such as a woman named Alexandra, who promise jobs in agriculture, security, or even medical support.
Albert described his encounter with Alexandra: “She said her father was a soldier, so she could get us passports after six months of service. She filled out our forms, but we never saw the jobs she promised.”
The recruitment process is deceptively streamlined. Victims like Emmanuel Hockey, one of 14 Ghanaians trafficked in August 2024, paid their agent, “one man supporter” upfront for visas and flights. Emmanuel, contacted via WhatsApp, recounted, “We paid GHS 25,000 each.
The agent texted us about his share but disappeared few months after we arrived in Russia and started calling him out.” Upon reaching Kostroma, the men said they were presented with contracts in Russian, a language none understood.
Their passports were confiscated, and they were subjected to 21 days of military training before being deployed to Russian-occupied Donetsk in Ukraine. The promised jobs never materialized, instead, they were handed rifles and sent to the frontlines.
Following the Money trail
The financial mechanics of this trafficking network reveal a grim calculus. Recruits pay substantial fees to agents like Boakye, often borrowing from family or depleting savings. In return, they are promised salaries of around 400,000 Russian rubles (approximately $5,000 USD) per month, along with benefits like health insurance and citizenship according to the men.
However, these promises are rarely fulfilled. But not all these men are paid the same, Albert reported that his handler, Alexandra, deducted 95,000 rubles from his first payment of 195,000 Russian rubles citing “administrative fees.”
When he suffered a severe injury, losing most of his teeth and sustaining leg damage in a bomb explosion, he was promised 3 million rubles in compensation but received nothing in agony, he said “I was completely healthy when I left Ghana.
Now, all my teeth are artificial. The war is real, people are dying every day. They dig a hole, throw everyone in, and you never see them again. I haven’t heard from about 70% of the other Ghanaians who went.
That tells you they’re probably gone. One day on the frontline, I saw a drone coming with a bomb. I tried to run, but I stepped on another bombshell.
I was quick to fall before it exploded. I landed on my face and lost almost all my teeth. 2 months later, I got shot in my right leg. I was told my leg would be cut off. That was when I called home. I’m still in pain after more than a year. Alexandra lied to me. I was promised 3 million rubles as compensation for the surgery, but I haven’t received a thing.”
The money trail extends beyond Ghana. In Russia, handlers and intermediaries reportedly earn commissions per recruit, with the Ghana Embassy source estimating $1,500-$2,000 per head: “and I can tell you on authority that I tried assisting some Ghanaians to cancel their contracts and return.
They called me to tell me to stop; they’ll go ahead and fight because of the pay, and when they get the pay, they send it to Ghana, and upon completion of the contract, they want to cancel the contract, but the Russians wouldn’t cancel it because you’re a Russian now, you’re no longer a Ghanaian.”
These funds are funneled through informal channels, often in cash or via mobile payment apps, making them difficult to trace. Efforts to verify these transactions through banking records or official documentation were unsuccessful, as Russian authorities have not responded to requests for comment.
The lack of transparency underscores a critical gap in tracking illicit financial flows, a challenge also highlighted in the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC’s 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which notes that trafficking networks often exploit weak financial oversight to launder profits.
The human cost
The human toll of this trafficking scheme is devastating. Emmanuel Hockey, now stranded in Donetsk, described his daily reality over a Telegram call: “We trek three hours to the frontline, carrying bombs. I see drones and missiles. My feet are scarred with blisters. We have families and children we are taking care of, they are scared and we are not okay.”
His family and that of the other 13 men in Accra, unaware of their exact location, receives sporadic messages pleading for rescue mostly on telegram.
A family member shared, “We sent letters to the Ghana Police and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but no one responds. We’re scared they’ll die there.”
A mother of one of the men appeared extremely worried while calling for attention on the matter “I was there one day when my sons sent me a message. When I looked at it, I realized it was a Russian visa. So I asked him what he’s using a Russian visa for, and he told me one man supporter, who is part of the Ghana Supporting Union, said he’s going to help them get to Russia for a recruitment on a security job. I said no, there’s war in Russia, so you don’t have to go, and he said, Mummy, the man said where he’s taking us to is not close to where the war is happening. He’s not taking us there because of the war. I said okay, are you all sure? He called me on a Sunday. I was in church so I couldn’t pick the call. I later saw a message they were leaving”
More than 10 Ghanaians have perished on the frontline according to Albert, one of them is Isaac Aboagye-Mensah, a 42-year-old father of three from Adanwomase in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi. He was not so fortunate.
A Kumasi Academy and the University of Professional Studies Graduate, Isaac left Ghana in February 2024, seeking a job in Russia through the aid of a Ghanaian agent. By April 2024, he was dead, reportedly killed on the frontlines.
His family learned of his death through a vague message from a fellow recruit, with no official confirmation from Russian or Ghanaian authorities. His father, Edward Baron Asamoah, demanded, “We need a document from the Russian army to prove he’s gone. Without it, we can’t even hold a burial. No one has called us officially to inform us, it’s deeply worrying and inhuman.”
Isaac’s 13-year-old son, Cameron, remains in the dark, asking, “Why won’t my mother tell me where my dad is? I heard from him last year. Since then, when I text him, I don’t get any reply, I disturbs me, asking my mother for my dad’s whereabouts and no one responding to me. I believe there’s a problem that they don’t want to tell me.”
TECHIMAN
Collins Owusu Kyeremeh’s story mirrors Isaac’s. Leaving Techiman in the Bono East region of Ghana in February 2024, Collins, 28, and a father of one was promised work in Russia through an unknown agent.
His brother, Sarfo Benjamin, recounted while he was in-touch with him on the frontline, “He tried escaping from a camp in Ukraine but was caught and later, he was shot in the leg. A month later, we got a call from Ghana Immigration saying he was dead.” The family’s attempts to seek answers, through letters to the Immigration
Department and pleas to the Foreign Affairs Ministry have yielded no results. A WhatsApp conversation shared by Collins’ friend showed his desperation: “I’m trapped. They won’t let me leave.” Collins was the hope of his family, this leaves his family down in the dumps.
The psychological toll on families is profound. The uncertainty of not knowing whether a loved one is alive or dead creates a state of ambiguous loss. Families in Ghana experience grief without closure, leading to anxiety, depression, and a sense of helplessness.
Families like Isaac’s and Collins’ are left grappling with this trauma, their dreams of a better future replaced by unanswered questions.
A broader crisis
The scope of this trafficking crisis is difficult to quantify, but available data paints a troubling picture. The UNODC’s 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons estimates that 24,000 victims were detected globally in 2016, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for a significant portion due to economic vulnerability and conflict-driven displacement.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that African migrants are increasingly vulnerable to forced labor and exploitation, particularly in conflict-affected regions. While cases of military recruitment have been reported in areas like Ukraine, these incidents underscore the heightened risks faced by migrants in unstable environments.
According to the Global Slavery Index 2023 by Walk Free, an estimated 11.8 million people in Africa were living in conditions of modern slavery as of 2021. This figure encompasses both forced labor and forced marriage, the two primary forms of modern slavery identified in the report.
In Ghana, precise figures on trafficked individuals are scarce, my investigation has already revealed 14 Ghanaians who were trafficked to Russia in August 2024 alone. Similar patterns have emerged in other African countries.
For instance, Somalia and Rwanda have reported cases of youth lured to Russia with job promises, only to be deployed in Ukraine. In Nepal and Cuba, non-African nations targeted by similar schemes, the UN has documented forced recruitment by private military contractors like the Wagner Group.
The Central African Republic has publicly condemned the exploitation of its citizens, with an estimated 200 recruits sent to Ukraine since 2022. These regional comparisons highlight a broader pattern of exploitation targeting vulnerable populations.
Data on returnees is equally sparse. The Ghana Embassy source claimed some Ghanaians attempted to cancel their contracts but were coerced to continue fighting, with Russian authorities refusing to recognize their Ghanaian citizenship “now a lot of people have come in and they’ve ignored our advice and have joined. Some of them have gone on to perish. Some too, we don’t know their whereabouts, some too are in Ukraine trying to come back, they can’t come. There are two guys also who wrote to me that they wanted to come and the only option for them is to escape because when we write to the Ministry of Defense, they’ll not listen to us. It’s a special military operation.”
No official figures exist on how many have returned, but interviews with two escapees on phone in Kumasi, who declined to speak on record due to fear of retaliation, suggest that escape is rare and dangerous. So far four Ghanaians have returned from the war.
Government and Legal Accountability
Ghana’s government response to this crisis has been inadequate. Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa acknowledged the issue in a statement, saying, “It’s been difficult to locate these people. We invited the Russian Ambassador in Accra, who claims his government is unaware of this situation, he says that his Embassy and his government is not aware of this situation.
Clearly it didn’t go through formal channels, from our preliminary investigation, it does appear that there are some private recruitment agencies who promised people jobs in Russia or Ukraine, and then unknown to these young people who are looking for decent work, who are not soldiers or warriors or vigilante who did not set out to go to war, are then lured to the battlefront, if those reports are to be confirmed, but I can assure that we continue to look into this matter, we’ve told the authorities to pursue this.”
My attempts to secure further interviews with Ablakwa or other officials were unsuccessful.
Ghana’s Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) criminalizes all forms of trafficking and prescribes penalties of a minimum of five years and up to 25 years’ imprisonment, depending on the severity and circumstances of the offense, but enforcement is weak.
Ghana is a signatory to the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Palermo Protocol), which obligates states to protect victims and prosecute traffickers. Yet, no prosecutions have been reported in connection with this case, and the licensing status of recruitment agencies like Boakye’s remains unclear.
Internationally, the use of foreign mercenaries may violate the UN Convention
Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has investigated mercenary activities in other contexts, but no specific probes have targeted Russia’s recruitment in Ukraine. The lack of legal action underscores a broader failure to hold both Ghanaian and Russian actors accountable.
Verification and Authenticity
To ensure the authenticity of these stories, my investigation relied on direct interviews with victims like Albert and Emmanuel, conducted via secure platforms like Telegram or WhatsApp due to their precarious situations. Emmanuel’s account of his scarred feet and chronic pain was corroborated by videos he sent.
Copies of signed contracts was shared by the victims. However, official confirmation of deaths, such as Isaac’s and Collins’, remains elusive. The Ghana Immigration Service acknowledged Collins’ death in a phone call to his family but provided no details, and Russian authorities have not responded to inquiries.
A security analyst Adib Saani’s warning of a “national security crisis” points to the potential for destabilization if trafficking networks continue unchecked. He argued, “These operations exploit Ghana’s youth, creating resentment and potential radicalization.” Without concrete data on the scale of recruitment, however, this claim remains speculative, highlighting the need for further investigation.
The stories of Albert, Emmanuel, Isaac, and Collins are a stark reminder of the human cost of war and exploitation. Behind every headline about Russia’s conflict in Ukraine are lives upended, families torn apart, and dreams shattered. Civil society organizations, such as human rights reporter’s Ghana , have called for stronger anti-trafficking measures but lack the resources to intervene directly. The international community, including the UN and ICC, must hold perpetrators accountable.
By amplifying victims’ voices and urging action, research and advocacy groups like Journalists for Justice continue to push for accountability and regional responses to dismantle trafficking networks.
For now, families like Cameron’s wait in limbo, praying for answers. As Edward said, “All we want is the truth.” Until that truth is uncovered, and justice is served, this story remains unfinished.
By Godwin Asediba, Investigative Journalist
