LOME, Togo: People from the small west African nation Togo have been \u201ccaptured and detained\u201d by Ukrainian armed forces after taking part \u201cin military operations alongside Russian armed forces,\u201d Togolese authorities said Friday.
\nIn a statement seen by AFP, Togo\u2019s foreign ministry said that the \u201cmajority of compatriots, in particular young students, had left Togo under alleged scholarships offered by structures claiming to be based in Russia.\u201d
\nThe ministry called on citizens, \u201cparticularly young people who wish to pursue their studies abroad, to exercise utmost vigilance.\u201d
\nIt \u201curges them to verify the authenticity of scholarship offers before making any commitment, and to contact the relevant departments or any other ministry concerned… to obtain reliable and secure information before any departure abroad, particularly to Russia.\u201d
\nIn March, the Martin Luther King Movement (MMLK), Togo\u2019s leading human rights organization, alerted the authorities to the case of a Togolese student captured on the battlefield and imprisoned in Ukraine.
\n\u201cHaving received his study visa at the Russian embassy in Cotonou, the compatriot left Togo for Russia on August 21, 2024,\u201d MMLK said in a statement.
\n\u201cArriving in Russia, he was forced to join the army to go to the front in Ukraine. It was there that he was seriously wounded, captured and thrown in prison,\u201d it said.
\nThe press also reported in recent months several cases of African nationals, often students or former prisoners, notably from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Benin, fighting with Russian forces on the Ukrainian front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOME, Togo: People from the small west African nation Togo have been \u201ccaptured and detained\u201d by Ukrainian armed forces after taking part \u201cin military operations alongside Russian armed forces,\u201d Togolese authorities said Friday. In a statement seen by AFP, Togo\u2019s foreign ministry said that the \u201cmajority of compatriots, in particular young students, had left Togo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80536,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80524\/revisions\/80536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}