Over 1400 Africans, mostly civilians, have been lured or clandestinely recruited into the Russian military to fight in Ukraine since the war started on February 24, 2022.
The majority of these victims are citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa who were seeking greener pastures.
Last month, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, confirmed that at least 1700 individuals from 36 African countries were fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine, a significant increase from the 1436 fighters confirmed in November 2025. The development shows that there has been an increase in the number of African nationals who have been confirmed to be fighting on the Russian side over the last three months.
In late February, 55 Ghanaians were confirmed to have been killed in action out of about 272 citizens of the West African country who were discovered to be involved in the conflict, according to Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who did not clarify on what side they were fighting on.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi had in November 2025 said about 200 Kenyans were fighting for Russia in Ukraine. In the same month, the South African government confirmed that it received distress calls from 17 of its citizens who joined mercenary forces in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The men were between the ages of 20 and 39 years and were trapped in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region late last year.
In July 2025, a Nigerian man, Kehinde Oluwagbemileke, who was fighting for the Russian military, was captured by Ukraine forces.
Mr. Oluwagbemileke was apprehended by the Freedom of Russia Legion, a unit composed of Russian fighters supporting Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project.
The 29-year-old was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region after serving with Russian forces for five months. He had been living in Russia for four years before his arrest on drug-related charges, the project said, adding that he confessed to agreeing to join Russia’s military campaign in exchange for a reduced sentence instead of serving a prison sentence under Article 228 of the Russian Criminal Code.
“Kehinde is one of thousands of mercenaries from third countries recruited by Russia’s Defence Ministry to fight in Ukraine.
“We’ve already published data on nearly 7,000 foreign fighters from 14 countries, but that’s only a small part of the foreigners the Kremlin has sent to die in Ukraine. All of them are cheap manpower, which is not spared,” the organisation stated.
Clandestine tactics employed by Russia to recruit Africans
Recruitment of Africans to fight as mercenaries in the Russian-Ukraine war involves a combination of digital propaganda, financial incentives, employment offers, and the use of intermediaries to facilitate travel and contracts, sometimes with the tacit collusion of corrupt officials in those countries. They utilize social media, specifically TikTok, Telegram, and gaming platforms like Discord, to target individuals in African countries, most of whom are seeking employment.
The recruiters usually offer fake job opportunities in fields like security, logistics, or drone operation, only for the victims to be conscripted into the Russian military or offered mercenary contracts after they get to Russia.
Recruiters also sometimes use short-form videos on TikTok and other social media platforms to showcase luxurious lifestyles and prosperous environments to entice poor Africans.
Sometimes, recruiters leverage existing community-based networks to recruit nationals from African countries living in Russia, encouraging friends and family to come to Russia for better opportunities, only for them to end up fighting in Ukraine. At other times, intermediaries are also said to arrange travel using tourist or other non-military visas.
In some cases, victims were allegedly forced to sign contracts written in foreign languages without proper legal advice, and their travel documents were confiscated upon arrival.
African governments respond, warn citizens to steer clear
Governments in some of the affected countries have warned citizens to steer clear of Russia and Ukraine and to be circumspect about foreign job offers and travel.
Last month, Nigeria’s foreign ministry issued an urgent warning over what it described as the increasing illegal recruitment of Nigerians to fight in foreign conflicts.
The warning followed a revelation by Ukrainian authorities that they found the bodies of two Nigerians who were killed in combat last year.
“Several Nigerians who have fallen victim to such unfortunate situations were deployed to combat zones after being misled and coerced into signing military service contracts,” Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for the ministry, said.
Last November, South Africa’s government opened an investigation into how 17 of its citizens joined mercenary forces in the Russia-Ukraine conflict after the men sent distress calls for help to return home.
Though the country didn’t say on which side its citizens fought on, most of Ukraine’s Donbas region, where the 17 South African citizens were trapped, is under Russian military control.
Last month, the Kenyan government said it would talk to Russia over growing reports that its citizens are being recruited to fight in the war in Ukraine, describing the development as “unacceptable and clandestine.”
The country’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi confirmed that it had shut down illegal recruiters and would urge Russia to sign a deal banning the conscription of Kenyans as soldiers in its war.
Mr. Mudavadi said Kenya’s engagement with Russia will focus on curbing illegal recruitment practices, including discussions on visa policy and bilateral labour agreements, excluding military conscription.
He said the Kenyan authorities had closed more than 600 recruitment agencies suspected of duping Kenyans with promises of jobs overseas.
He confirmed that 27 Kenyans who had been fighting in Russia have been repatriated, adding that authorities are providing psychological care to address their trauma and de-radicalise them.
Breach of international human rights laws
The International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Human Rights Law (IHRL), and international criminal laws prohibit the enforced conscription of foreigners to fight in a war.
Individuals being lured with promises of jobs or education and then forced to fight is considered a violation of their human rights. The International Human Rights Law also recognizes people’s rights to conscientious objection to military service. African countries whose citizens were clandestinely recruited to fight for Russia can sue the Russian Federation at the International Criminal Court for the abuse of the rights of their citizens.
Since the start of 2024, a total of 3,344 foreign nationals who went to fight in Ukraine have received Russian citizenship, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Insider, a Russia-focused, independent media outlet, estimated that about 2,000 citizens from more than 50 countries have fought in the Donbas region, with 75% supporting Russia.
Poverty as a push-factor for young Africans.
Though there are no reports of relatives of affected individuals coming out to speak about the development, analysts have, however, urged African governments to improve the living conditions of their citizens to deter them from voluntarily joining the war in Ukraine.
Femi Otubanjo, a Professor of International Relations, told The Guardian that reports of Africans, including Nigerians, ending up in military camps in Russia reflect a complex global pattern driven by economic hardship and long-standing international recruitment practices.
“It takes two to tango. So, you have to have a partnership for certain things to be achieved,” Otubanjo said, noting that stories of foreign job seekers being redirected into military service are not entirely new in global conflict dynamics.
The Professor explained that while allegations of false recruitment persist, the underlying driver remains economic desperation, particularly across Africa, where youth unemployment remains high.
“The reality is that we have to admit it too, there are a lot of Africans who are desperate to go anywhere,” he said.
He noted that with between 50 and 60 per cent of Africa’s population made up of young people, the lack of jobs continues to push many to take extreme risks in search of economic survival. He added that high exchange rates and the lure of earning foreign currency, hence encouraging risky migrations.
Several reports have confirmed that Russia targets poor and vulnerable African nationals with false job offers that lead to coerced or deceptive military recruitment, resulting in growing numbers of Africans fighting and dying in Ukraine. The situation creates severe national security risks and humanitarian crises in the affected African countries, including loss of military personnel and stranded citizens in war-torn zones, a situation that might cause diplomatic rifts.
African fighters in the Russia–Ukraine war are rarely treated as humans, but as mere disposable manpower. Most of them are sent straight to the most dangerous parts of the battlefield, where casualty rates are high, and survival often depends more on luck than training. When they are killed, there is usually no clear chain of accountability. Their deaths pass quietly, with little diplomatic follow-up from either the country they fought for or the country they came from.
Those who survive and are captured often face an even murkier fate. Some end up in Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camps, caught in a legal grey zone. Moscow may not recognise them as formal soldiers, while their home governments are slow or unwilling to intervene. The result is prolonged detention, for months, and sometimes for years, with limited clarity about their legal status or prospects for exchange.
For African countries, the implications go far beyond individual misfortune. In Cameroon, the departure of trained soldiers or ex-servicemen to fight abroad weakens a security apparatus already stretched thin. The country is grappling with Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North, separatist violence in the Anglophone regions, and spillover instability from neighbouring states. Any loss of experienced personnel, particularly those with special forces training, carries real operational consequences. It is partly for this reason that the country has tightened anti-desertion measures and restricted unauthorised foreign travel for military personnel.
The ripple effects are equally concerning in Nigeria, which continues to battle insurgent groups in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, and communal violence in parts of the Middle Belt. Nigeria has invested heavily in counter-terrorism capacity over the past decade. If trained personnel or combat-experienced individuals are drawn into foreign theatres of war, it risks creating two problems at once: a depletion of local security capacity and the potential return of battle-hardened fighters with new networks, skills, and ideological exposure. Either outcome complicates an already fragile security environment.
In Kenya, the issue intersects with broader anxieties about organised crime and transnational recruitment networks. President William Ruto has previously appealed for the release of Kenyan nationals detained abroad, while Nairobi has voiced concern about citizens being lured into risky ventures overseas, from mercenary activity to trafficking rings. The fear is not only diplomatic embarrassment but also the emergence of recruitment pipelines that exploit unemployment and economic hardship. If left unchecked, such channels could feed criminality at home and undermine Kenya’s international standing.
Uganda also faces its own vulnerabilities. With a history of regional military deployments and a sizeable population of former combatants, Ugandan nationals joining foreign conflicts raises questions about oversight and reintegration.
In South Africa, the matter carries explicit legal weight. The country has clear legislation prohibiting citizens from fighting as mercenaries or under foreign command without state approval. Authorities have launched investigations after reports that South Africans were trapped in conflict zones. Beyond the legal dimension, South Africa also contends with reputational risk as Africa’s most industrialised economy and a key diplomatic player in multilateral forums. South Africa cannot afford the perception that its citizens are participating in foreign wars outside established international norms. While foreign fighters make up only a small fraction of total combatants in Ukraine, their symbolic value is outsized. Images and videos of international recruits circulate widely on social media, serving both recruitment drives and disinformation campaigns. Their presence feeds narratives about global ideological struggle, drawing in more volunteers and blurring the line between state militaries and private actors.
