Zimbabwean organisation urges Africa to challenge Russian recruitment for Ukraine war

The Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE), based in Bulawayo, has called on African leaders attending the third Russia-Africa summit, due to take place in Moscow on 28 and 29 October, to raise the recruitment of African citizens to fight in the war in Ukraine. In a statement signed by its media centre director, Zenzele Ndebele, the organisation said Africans were being lured to Russia with promises of civilian jobs before being sent to the front.

According to CITE, some recruits and their families have said that contracts were written in Russian, a language they did not understand. Their passports and phones were reportedly confiscated on arrival, before they underwent about two weeks of training and were deployed. Families are searching for missing relatives, mourning those whose deaths have been confirmed and seeking help from their governments.

In March 2026, the Zimbabwean government said that 15 citizens had died after being recruited and that 66 were still in Russia, Ndebele recalled. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade collected DNA samples in Bulawayo on 13 and 14 October from families of people reported missing or dead.

CITE said the issue also affected Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, South Africa and Nigeria. More than 30 Kenyan families gathered in Nairobi on 6 October to ask President William Ruto to raise the issue at the summit. Uganda’s parliament discussed it on 15 October; in Cameroon, where the government has confirmed the deaths of 16 citizens, families formed the “Bring Back Our Sons and Brothers” group in August.