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Nigerians and citizens of other African countries have been warned to minimise their desire to participate in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The warning comes amid reports that many Africans are dying as Russians use African citizens as “cannon meat” on the front lines, sending them towards Ukrainian positions they may never see because they are killed by drones.
An anonymous adviser on the frontline said: “Russia’s deceptive war recruitment scheme ensnares thousands of young Africans.
“Russia’s bait-and-switch conscription of Africans for its war in Ukraine exposes an extensive pipeline of human trafficking, coercion, and foreign interference that is exploiting vulnerable job seekers.
“Through a shadowy network of online recruiters, Russia has quietly assembled a pipeline funnelling thousands of Africans from nearly every country on the continent into the front lines and factories supporting Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine. These were not the destinations the young Africans thought they had signed up for. Many were looking for jobs, training, or opportunities abroad. Drawn by promises of life-changing salaries, they instead found themselves trapped in a war far from their home countries.”
Russia, he added, has built a deceptive recruitment pipeline that preys on African job seekers and students, channelling them into Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
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“Investigations reveal a recurring pattern. Young Africans are promised civilian work, sports opportunities, study programmes, or legal status in Russia, only to arrive and be pressured to sign Russian-language military contracts.
“This scheme is intended to address Russia’s growing shortage of foot soldiers. Moscow needs roughly 30,000–35,000 new recruits each month to offset battlefield losses along the 1,200-km front line while avoiding a politically risky general mobilisation of the Russian population. Estimates are that Russia has suffered approximately 1.2 million casualties—including as many as 325,000 deaths—since its attack on Ukraine in 2022.
“What first looked like isolated cases of recruitment scams targeting Africans has now been exposed as an extensive and systematic effort involving Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the government’s principal intelligence agency.
“Estimates are that more than 1,700 Africans from 36 countries are currently fighting for Russia. This figure may represent only a fraction of the total number of Africans recruited by Russia, however. A Kenyan intelligence report presented to Parliament showed that more than 1,000 Kenyans had been recruited—a figure that is 2,100 per cent higher than the number of Kenyans in the leaked database.
“Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late leader of Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group, said Africans recruited from Russian jails had fought and died in order to ‘repay (Africa’s) debts’ to Russia,” the adviser further said.
