How Africa Became a Recruiting Ground for the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
By Sara Etukudo | 25 November 2025
Summary
Russia is targeting economically 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.
This creates severe national security, legal and humanitarian consequences for African states, including loss of personnel, stranded citizens in conflict zones and rising diplomatic tensions.
If unaddressed, it is likely that recruitment pipelines will expand and deepen Russia’s influence, creating long-term security challenges for African governments.
Context
Military recruitment has been Russia’s biggest challenge since the February 2022 invasion. The urgency is driven by the significant battlefield casualties, estimated by some sources to exceed one million since the conflict began. To meet its manpower needs, the Kremlin has increasingly been exploiting and targeting young men from African countries with high unemployment and poverty rates, conditions that make them particularly vulnerable for recruitment. Ukrainian officials estimate that at least 1,436 citizens from 36 African countries are currently fighting alongside Russian forces, though the real figure is believed to be higher. The recruits originate from Kenya, South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Togo, Somalia, Uganda, Sierra Leone among others.
Many are lured with false promises of well-paying jobs and lucrative employment contracts. For example, Kenyan recruits were allegedly offered up to USD 18,000 to cover visas, travel and accommodation. Russian agents advertise high-paying salaries, sign-up bonuses and fast-tracked Russian citizenship. However, recruits are often deceived into signing contracts written in Russian which they cannot read, that turn out to be binding military agreements. Some signatures are signed under duress.
For example, Kenyan runner Evan Kibet was offered to compete in races in St. Petersburg. After being instructed to sign “work papers”, he was taken to a military camp and told to either fight or be killed. Recruitment networks are still active. Kenyan authorities recently arrested Russian Embassy employees accused of enlisting local men as mercenaries and sending them to the battlefield. Reports also suggest that Russia has been targeting African women, particularly South Africans, through social media campaigns that misrepresent work opportunities in drone factories.
Implications
Foreign fighters are often treated as expendable, “second-rate human material” with many of them deployed directly to the frontlines where survival rates are very low. In most cases, there is no mechanism for accountability when foreign fighters are killed. Those who survive and are captured typically end up in Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camps, creating “legal limbo” in which neither Russia or their home countries are interested in trading for them, leaving them stuck in prisons for months or years.
The loss of soldiers and special forces poses security risks for states like Cameroon, which is already engaged in multiple internal and regional conflicts against ISIS, Boko Haram, Central African rebels, maritime piracy and Anglophone separatists in the south. For this reason, Cameroon’s Defence Ministry has issued anti-desertion orders and banned military personnel from traveling abroad without government authorisation. In South Africa, the government has launched an investigation after receiving distress calls from 17 citizens trapped in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Fighting as a mercenary or under the command of a foreign government without permission is illegal in South Africa. Kenyan President William Ruto has similarly appealed to Ukraine for the release of any Kenyan nationals held in custody, while Kenya’s Foreign Minister has expressed concern about the broader trend of citizens being drawn into forms of “forced criminality” such as drug trafficking and forced labour abroad, viewing this as a growing threat to national and global security.
Although foreign fighters constitute a relatively small proportion of combatants on both sides, they play a powerful role in shaping propaganda and attracting new recruits. They are frequently featured in social media content, promotional materials and Russian disinformation campaigns. This dynamic reflects a larger global trend in which the private security industry is increasingly being relied upon to address complex security challenges, often with significant legal and ethical consequences.
Forecast
Short-term (Now - 3 months)
It is highly likely that Russia will continue targeting economically vulnerable African nationals through deceptive recruitment networks.
Medium-term (3-12 months)
It is a realistic possibility that more African governments will face security and diplomatic pressures as citizens are killed, captured or stranded in the conflict.
Long-term (>1 year)
It is likely that established recruitment pipelines will expand and become more organised unless African governments strengthen prevention, enforcement and public awareness efforts. It is also likely that the private security markets will grow as Ukraine and Russia seek alternatives to depleted or overstretched militaries.
