“An attack on all of us”: Ghanaians killed abroad, and who has been arrested

Javits Frimpong was 15. On Thursday 29 October 2026 he was shot near East 171st Street and Crotona Place in the Bronx, New York, on his way to school at DreamYard Prep. He had moved from Ghana about a year earlier to live with his father, according to NBC New York.

The next day, 30 October, Ghana's government said it would pursue justice for him, in a statement carried by the Information Services Department. New York police have said they are looking for three teenagers aged 16 to 18. As of 3 November, no arrest had been reported.

On 3 November the Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said everything was set for Javits' mother, Doris Adu Gyamfi, and her niece to leave Ghana for the United States within hours.

"Anywhere in the world"

Mr Ablakwa, Foreign Minister in the NDC government of President John Dramani Mahama, has a line he repeats. In a TV3 Key Points interview on 10 October 2026, published by his ministry on 12 October, he said: "Any attack on a Ghanaian anywhere in the world is an attack on all of us." He was speaking about South Africa.

On 3 November, 24 days later, he used the same words again for Javits Frimpong, in a post on X, as reported by Ghanamma and Adom Online. QMS did not capture the original post.

QMS checked what has happened in other cases of Ghanaians killed abroad, as of 3 November 2026.

Where the government spoke

Bashiru Isak, Cape Town. According to Ghana's government, Mr Isak, a tailor, was shot at his shop in Khayelitsha on 30 June 2026. The ministry gave his age as 40; the Ghana News Agency and the Ghanaian Times say 44. Ghana's High Commission in Pretoria lodged a protest with South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation and a complaint with the South African Police Service (SAPS). On 16 July the Foreign Ministry wrote: "We expect expedited investigations, arrests and prosecution."

South Africa gives a different account. Its Justice Minister and police said the victim was attacked at his workplace in Nyanga on Monday 29 June, that the killing was extortion-related, and that it was "totally not linked" to the demonstrations. SAPS said it had no record of a Khayelitsha murder, and that its only record of a Ghanaian shot that day was under a different man's name. Ghana later said the identity had been confirmed and called South Africa's claims false. The discrepancy has not been publicly resolved.

His remains landed in Ghana on 14 July. An independent autopsy in Ghana was inconclusive because of the state of the body, Mr Ablakwa said on 7 September. No arrest has been reported.

Nash Amoonu Jailor, East London. Mr Jailor, 37, died in what the Foreign Ministry calls an alleged mob attack in East London, South Africa. The ministry dates it to March 2026; the Ghana News Agency says 3 April. His body was brought home on 3 September at no cost to his family. South African police say they are investigating. No arrest has been reported.

Titao, Burkina Faso. On 14 February 2026 the armed group JNIM attacked the market town of Titao. Ghana's Interior Minister first put the Ghanaian death toll at seven; on 17 February the Foreign Ministry said eight. The victims were tomato traders. By 16 February they had been buried in Burkina Faso, with DNA samples taken, and Ghana's mission could not reach the town. On President Mahama's instruction, the injured were flown home by the Ghana Air Force. QMS found no public record that the bodies of those killed were repatriated.

Russia's war in Ukraine. In Kyiv on 27 February 2026, Mr Ablakwa said at least 55 Ghanaians had been killed fighting for Russia and that 272 had been recruited since 2022, many through deceptive job offers. On 18 August he said 62 had died and 15 remained missing. "This is not our war, and it should not be claiming Ghanaian lives," he said. The names of those who died have not been fully disclosed in official statements.

Nana Agyei Oduru Ahyia, Riga. The 18-year-old Riga Technical University student died on 4 June 2025 after a fall in the Latvian capital. Latvian authorities concluded it was suicide or an accident. His family does not accept that finding and believes someone else was responsible; that has not been established. The cause of death remains disputed. In early February 2026, Mr Ablakwa flew to Riga with the family, a forensic expert and a pathologist, and the case was placed under the supervision of Latvia's Interior Ministry. No charges have been reported, and as of the last reports the final report had not been shared with the family.

Where no statement was found

QMS searched the websites of the Foreign Ministry, the Information Services Department and Ghana's missions, and the news, for a Ghana government statement on four other cases. None was found. That is a search finding, not proof that no statement was made.

Akpene Tetteh, Savannah, Georgia. Ms Tetteh, 37, a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University from Ghana, was shot in the street in Savannah in February 2026. A teenager, Naasir Clark, was taken into custody the same day and was later indicted. He has not been convicted.

Lartey Solomon, Oakland, California. Mr Solomon, 33, a nurse, was shot on 31 May 2026 in an attempt to rob him of his chain. Shacory Carnell Daniels, 39, was arrested on 4 June and charged with felony murder on 9 June.

Belinda Sarkodie, Hamilton, Canada. Ms Sarkodie, 26, described by Hamilton's police chief as being from Ghana, was killed as a bystander in a shooting on 11 July 2025. In November 2025 a 17-year-old, who cannot be named, was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Johanita Kossiwa Dogbey, London. Ms Dogbey, 31, from a Ghanaian family, was stabbed by a stranger in Brixton on 1 May 2023. Mohamed Nur was sentenced at the Old Bailey on 23 May 2024 to life in prison, with a minimum term of 32 years.

In every case on this list where an arrest or charge was made, it was made by police in the country where the killing happened. QMS does not claim that Ghana's statements, or their absence, caused any of these outcomes.

The assignment

Javits' family shared a school assignment he wrote by hand, published by the NY Daily News. It opens: "I am from Ghana." In it he wrote (spelling standardised) that school had been good since he came, "because in Ghana they beat us and put fear on us when learning. One mistake, and they will punish you severely." The last item reads: "I want to go really far with education."

The American numbers

In 2024, guns killed 2,214 children and teenagers aged 1 to 17 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins data reported by Stateline and the CT Mirror. It was the leading cause of death for that age group for the fifth year in a row. That chain rests on one report; the Johns Hopkins page could not be opened directly.

A study published on 31 July 2026 in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance found that, pooled over 2018 to 2024, the gun homicide rate for Black non-Hispanic males aged 0 to 24 was 23.8 times the rate for white non-Hispanic males of the same ages: 44.03 against 1.85 per 100,000. The authors link the gap to structural conditions such as segregation and disinvestment, not to the young men themselves.

The record so far

Ghana's government has done the following in 2026: 1,964 Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa between 27 May and 4 September (the Minority disputes the count), the Titao wounded flown home, two bodies repatriated from South Africa, and the minister's trip to Riga.

As of 3 November 2026, no arrest has been reported in the killings of Javits Frimpong or Bashiru Isak.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is invited to respond. Any response or correction will be added to this story.

This story is based on the research and fact check for the ON RECORD episode "Anywhere In The World". Everyone charged is presumed innocent until proven guilty.