With its disastrous invasion of Ukraine having reached its fourth year in February, Russia has turned to African manpower to fill the gaps in its decimated armed forces. With battlefield casualties reportedly hitting tens of thousands a month, evidence has been growing that Moscow is clandestinely hiring troops in Africa – not all of whom are aware of what they are signing up for – before pitching them into the Ukrainian furnace.
Ukrainian intelligence estimates that more than 1,400 people from 36 countries in Africa have been recruited to fight for Russia. An unknown number have been killed. In February, Kenyan foreign minister Musalia Mudavadi called the practice “unacceptable and clandestine” and said Nairobi had shut down illegal recruiters. The government estimates that around 200 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia and says 27 have been repatriated. It is not known how many are already dead.
“Families that we’ve spoken to say they have not been able to bury their loved ones because their bodies are still on the other end,” Mudavadi told the BBC. “It is difficult because, remember, it depends on where the body has been found. Some have been found in Ukraine – we are also working with the government of Ukraine to try and get the remains of those people repatriated.” Shortly after this interview, Nigeria’s foreign ministry issued an urgent warning over illegal recruitment in unnamed foreign conflicts. While it did not specifically mention the Russia-Ukraine war, the statement followed Ukrainian claims that they had discovered the bodies of two Nigerians killed in combat. A foreign ministry spokesman said that Nigerians were being “deployed to combat zones after being misled and coerced into signing military service contracts”.
Deceptive promises of employment, educational opportunities and migration incentives – sometimes written in foreign language contracts – have been dangled in front of recruits, the government said.
A very different fate awaits men who find themselves thrust into armed combat in the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. In Eastern Ukraine, thousands are slaughtered every month in “human wave” attacks that often make territorial gains measured in metres.
Scandal in South Africa
The issue has sparked a major political scandal in South Africa, usually a close friend of Moscow, where a daughter of former President Jacob Zuma has been accused of duping 17 men to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Duduzile Zuma Sambudla, a member of her father’s MK party, in November resigned as an MP over the allegations – but has denied wrongdoing and insisted in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for “lawful” training.
The 17 apparently believed they were signing up for security training.
The issue was raised in a meeting between South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in February. In a bland diplomatic statement, the usually friendly presidents “pledged their support to the process of returning South Africans fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine”.
On Tuesday, Ramaphosa said his government had secured the release of its remaining citizens. His office said four men arrived in South Africa last week, 11 are due to return soon, one has been hospitalised and another is preparing to travel.
Since the outbreak of its ruinous war Russia has sought to shore up diplomatic support in Africa and pose as a friend of the continent. Its propaganda frequently portrays Russia as the antidote to a neocolonial West that has long taken advantage of Africans. Such posturing has proven effective in countries such as South Africa, where a residual fondness for the Soviet Union’s role in supporting anti-apartheid forces still remains.
But Moscow’s willingness to expend African lives in its criminal war tells a very different story.