Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of violence
Reports are increasing across Africa that citizens are being drawn into Russia’s war in Ukraine, often after being lured with false job offers and then pressed into military service.
South Africa’s foreign minister, Ronald Lamola, recently met families of 11 men who had been repatriated after being recruited to join the fighting. The foreign ministry said it was alarmed by “suspicious circumstances” and predatory recruitment tactics. Lamola also confirmed that two South Africans have died fighting for Russia.
In Kenya, prosecutors have charged the director of a recruitment firm with trafficking people “to Russia for the purpose of exploitation by means of deception,” Reuters reported. The 33-year-old is accused of playing a central role in a network that allegedly sent more than 1,000 Kenyans to fight for the Russian army and faces human trafficking charges.
Ghanaian officials say they secured the release of two Ghanaian prisoners of war from Ukraine after a meeting between Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Tricked, pressured and sent to the front
Families across the continent say loved ones accepted work offers and traveled to Russia, only to be told upon arrival that they would have to sign military contracts. One Ugandan case has become a public example of how recruitment can end in death.
Caroline Mukiza, 42, lives on the outskirts of Kampala and is mourning her husband, 46-year-old Edson Kamwesigye. He had previously worked as a security guard in Iraq and Afghanistan and flew to Moscow in December for what he believed would be another security job. Mukiza heard nothing for weeks until a message on January 15 in which he wrote that they had been made to sign “contracts of military nature.” After brief training he was deployed to the front and told his family, “Pray for us. We are not sure if we shall make it.”
Toward the end of January, images began circulating online of a dead man who acquaintances believed might be Kamwesigye. Mukiza begged people not to send those photos. She has asked the Russian embassy in Kampala for help recovering his body for a proper burial but says she has received no response.
Public figures have warned of the scale and danger of this phenomenon. In November 2025, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X that “at least 1,436 citizens from 36 African countries are currently fighting in the ranks of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine,” and cautioned that signing a Russian military contract was “equivalent to a death sentence,” adding that most mercenaries do not survive more than a month.
Earlier, in May 2024, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said Russia was offering African mercenaries about $2,200 a month to fight on the front. But families and independent researchers have since exposed recruitment tactics and the grim fates of many recruits.
Videos and testimonies
Since public statements from Ukrainian officials, families have come forward and social media has circulated videos and photos showing Africans in Russian military uniforms. In one smartphone clip from the Ukrainian front that went viral in Uganda, a group of African recruits sit in the snow singing or dancing to a tune linked to Uganda’s 1980s civil war.
Another video released by Ukrainian forces features Richard Akantorana, a Ugandan who says he traveled to Russia expecting work in a supermarket. He says he was told on arrival that he would “enter the Russian army,” and when he resisted he was forced at gunpoint to sign papers. He later surrendered to Ukrainian forces and warned fellow Africans not to “fall into this trap.”
The human cost is already clear. A research team, INPACT, published a 15-page list of names recovered by Ukrainian forces that it says are Africans killed on the front. The list includes at least 316 individuals, nearly 100 of whom are from Cameroon; two Ugandan names appear on the list, though Mukiza’s husband is not among them.
Abuse and use as frontline expendables
Online videos have fueled concerns that African recruits are being used as expendable front-line fighters. One disturbing clip, filmed in a bunker, appears to show an African man with an explosive strapped to his body and a rifle pointed at him while a voice in Russian urges him to run and open the way. DW was unable to independently verify the authenticity of that footage.
INPACT’s report also argues that many African recruits are effectively treated as “cannon fodder,” noting that the average time served by those reported killed in action is about six months.
Uganda and other governments respond
Uganda has opened investigations into recruitment networks. In August 2025, nine men were stopped at Entebbe International Airport on their way to Moscow; they said they had been hired as guards. A Russian national arrested in Kampala said he worked for a recruiting company called Magnit; Ugandan investigators say the firm is not registered in the country.
Many recruitment offers in Uganda and elsewhere promise jobs in the Gulf — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Qatar — where governments have formal labour agreements. Uganda has no such agreement with Russia, Joshua Kyalimpa, a spokesperson for Uganda’s Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, told DW. He said recruitment often happens through social media platforms such as TikTok and that the ministry is warning people not to accept offers that could send them into conflict zones.
Mukiza says Uganda’s foreign minister told local TV that the country “does not have the capacity to repatriate the bodies of those who die abroad,” leaving her feeling hopeless. She has not told her two children about their father’s death, fearing their questions about where he is and how to bury him.
Wider implications
The cases in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana illustrate a broader pattern: recruiters target young men with offers of work abroad, then use deception or coercion to push them into military roles in a distant, deadly conflict. Governments and rights groups are now investigating networks that cross borders and exploit economic vulnerability, while families cope with loss and uncertainty.
This article has been adapted from German.
Editor’s note: If you are experiencing severe emotional distress or suicidal thoughts, seek professional help. You can find information about where to get help worldwide at https://www.befrienders.org/.