Overview
- Ukraine’s ambassador in South Africa says Africans are enticed to Russia with job or study offers and then compelled to sign military contracts for deployment in Ukraine.
- Online videos cited in new reports appear to show African men abused by Russian personnel, including a case of a recruit forced to charge with a mine strapped to his chest.
- Ukrainian officials estimate up to about 1,400 Africans are serving on the front lines for Russia, with hundreds reported killed, figures that remain subject to verification.
- Seventeen South Africans say they were misled into traveling for bodyguard training linked to Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and ended up signing army papers and going to the front.
- Authorities in several African countries have issued fraud warnings, Kenya has opened a trafficking probe after Evans Kibet’s capture, and some accounts describe a frontline survival time of roughly 72 hours for new recruits.