October 30, 2026
Billboards in Accra Warn About Russian Recruitment
Billboards warning Ghanaians about job offers that end in Russia's army have been installed in Accra. They carry the messages of Stop Russian Recruiters and Ukraine's "I Want to Live" and "I Want to Find" projects, and they went up as Ghana's leaders sought closer ties with Russia at the Third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow.
What the Billboards Are For
The billboards for Stop Russian Recruiters are meant to help people realise that there is deception behind job offers for Russia, and to send them to our website to find out more.
The billboards for the "I Want to Find" project are aimed at Ghanaian families whose loved ones went to Russia and stopped contacting them. It tells them the project may be able to help them find the missing.
The billboards for the "I Want to Live" project are meant to spread the word among Ghanaians that there is a safe channel for people who want to escape Russia's army.
Ghana Seeks Partnership With Moscow While Its Citizens Pay the Price
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Ghana, wrote on X on October 28 that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had announced Russia's strong support for Ghana's application to join BRICS as a partner country and pledged to rally the founding members behind it. Ablakwa thanked Lavrov and said that the government of John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, would keep to non-alignment, "friends of all, enemies to none". The next day, Mahama told the summit that Ghana has begun talks with Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom on building its first nuclear power station, according to TRT Afrika.
Ghana's Minister of Labour, Employment and Job Creation, Emmanuel Agyekum, has also signed a memorandum of understanding with E.R. Safuillin, director of Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone, to facilitate the recruitment of Ghanaian workers for industrial and manufacturing jobs in the place where Russian military drones are being produced. The report says Alabuga needs more than 75,000 workers, and that Ghana's labour ministry is expected to verify job offers and give workers pre-departure orientation.
Ablakwa has also given Ghana's own figures: about 272 Ghanaians recruited into Russia's army since 2022 and, in August, at least 62 of them dead and 15 missing. Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project names 85 Ghanaians killed in Russia's army.
Ghana's government is seeking partnership with Russia, while Russia has been luring Ghanaians, along with other Africans, into its army. It uses them in the most dangerous places on the front line, where many are killed, and gives their families no information. That is why we are spreading the word about Russian recruitment and giving victims and their families channels to turn to if this has happened to them.