JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — As Russia’s battlefield losses mount in Ukraine, African leaders are increasingly condemning what they describe as a cynical campaign to recruit African men to fight and die in a foreign war.
Officials are pushing Moscow to end recruiting practices that some Africans consider deliberately misleading or even outright falsehoods.
“We have seen loss of lives, and I am planning to make a visit to Moscow so that we can emphasize that this is something that needs to be arrested,” Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said in a Feb. 10 statement.
Kenya is not alone.
African leaders are increasingly sounding alarm bells about Russia’s efforts to recruit their citizens. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to help return South African citizens fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine in a bilateral phone call, according to a readout of the call published by the South African government.
Ukrainian authorities report that, according to their estimates, at least 1,400 Africans joined the Russian war effort.
Some, particularly men from Cameroon, are seasoned military veterans specifically recruited by the Russians for their battlefield skills. Others are untrained and often unsuspecting young men who have been press-ganged into military service on behalf of Moscow, including graduate students studying in Russia and irregular migrants who had merely hoped to pass through Russia on their way to Europe.
A Feb. 6 report from the organization Investigations With Impact revealed the names of over 1,000 Africans from across the continent who have joined Mr. Putin’s army. The individuals’ names ranged from an 18-year-old Ghanaian to a 57-year-old Egyptian national. Egyptians and Cameroonians made up the largest contingents of recruits according to the data.
While the circumstances differed, the report noted three recurring factors in Russia’s Africa-focused recruiting efforts.
“The use of travel agencies operating as logistical intermediaries, the involvement of local pro-Russian individuals and organizations, and recruitment networks based on co-optation, in which former recruits become recruiters themselves. These schemes rely heavily on bogus job offers, promises of education or administrative regularization, and irregular immigration channels,” the report said.
On April 30, the Foreign Ministry of Togo took the unusual step of warning its nationals to closely examine any alleged “scholarships” offered by organizations in Russia. A statement from the ministry urged students “to verify the authenticity of scholarship offers before making any commitments and to contact its relevant services…to obtain reliable and secure information before departing for any trip abroad, especially to Russia.”
In other cases, no duplicity is needed. Russia’s African soldiers are offered a monthly salary of $2,500 and Russian citizenship after serving part of a one-year contract. Some in-demand African contract soldiers receive signing bonuses that can range from $2,000 to $30,000. Specialist soldiers like snipers can earn even more.
According to Investigations With Impact, Gambian volunteers have had the bloodiest experience of any African contingent. Some 23 of 56 contracted Gambian soldiers were killed in Ukraine. Multiple Gambian government sources disputed this figure to The Washington Times, saying that they could confirm the deaths of only nine Gambian citizens thus far in the conflict.
“Russia has always been a valued partner for the Gambia and Africa, I have no doubt our Russian allies would never condone such exploitation of our people,” said Abdoulie Njai, a member of parliament in the Gambia, told The Washington Times. ”This is the work of illegal trafficking networks or the sort that exploit desperate young men everywhere. The Gambian government is handling this matter with the seriousness it deserves and in working cooperation with Russia in bringing these criminal networks to justice and ensuring the safe return of any stranded Gambians.”
Cameroon’s military has seen more combat than many of its African peers in recent years. Its soldiers have battled Boko Haram and have been dragged into the Central African republic’s civil war on occasion. The Gulf of Guinea has seen a rise in piracy. The English-speaking southern region of Cameroon has seen insurgency from various groups seeking independence since 2017.
Since at least 2010, Cameroonian soldiers have journeyed abroad seeking better pay in the United Arab Emirates and beyond. According to the Investigations With Impact report, 94 Cameroonians have died in Ukraine out of some 335 fighters recruited, second only to Egypt in total number recruited.
Cameroon’s defense minister last year temporarily suspended overseas deployments and foreign travel for Cameroonian soldiers amid concerns that military personnel were using missions abroad as exit ramps from the regime. President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982, appears untroubled by Cameroonian soccer stars such as Samuel Eto’o and Vincent Aboubakar shooting goals for foreign clubs. But allowing Cameroonian soldiers to seek fortune abroad for their marksmanship is another matter entirely — one the aging strongman’s government is keen to end.
Cameroonians fighting in Russia may have an unusual historical precedent to draw on. The Russian imperial court once included Abram Gannibal, an African — likely from what is today Cameroon or perhaps Ethiopia — who was brought to the court of Peter the Great as a child slave. Gannibal rose through the ranks to become a leading general and military engineer in the tsar’s imperial army.
Last year, South Africa dismantled a network that sent South African men to fight in Russia. The network was said to include a prominent local radio personality who was linked to sending 17 South African men to Russia. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, resigned from parliament in January over allegations of her involvement in the recruitment ring.
South African political analysts suggest the issue of South Africans fighting in Ukraine is politically useful for the ruling African National Congress party, which has ruled the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. The Russia scandal has been used to discredit the family of Mr. Zuma, who after resigning from the presidency in 2018 has revived his political fortunes atop a rival party.
More surprising is how few South Africans have joined Russia’s war in Ukraine, given the growing ties between Johannesburg and Moscow and the large number of men with weapons training in South Africa.
In addition to some 300,000 personnel across its military and security services, the country is home to over 3 million private security contractors. The pay offered for mercenary work in Russia far exceeds typical earnings for security work in South Africa, where the violent crime rate is on the rise.
“Russian recruitment efforts haven’t targeted Afrikaners, and it hasn’t targeted skilled operators from other groups. There are some Xhosa or Zulu operators who can shoot like this,” said a South African government source, cupping his hands to suggest a tight grouping of bullets on a gun range. “Recruiters have instead targeted recent immigrants and desperate people. The pay looks good, but if the contracts were legitimate, private security firms would be hemorrhaging staff. Instead, word has spread that a Russian contract is a bad deal.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.