A Cameroonian man was being treated in the infirmary of a Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine when he shared his story. The Kremlin, he said, is recklessly sending African conscripts to fight and die on the frontlines of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Samuel” was among the thousands of Africans sent to the frontlines to fight, most of them against their will. Instead of fighting alongside Russian troops, however, Samuel said foreign conscripts are being used as cannon fodder.
“Here, as soon as we can walk, they send us to the front,” he told Radio France Internationale (RFI), which gave him the pseudonym for his safety. “The Africans are on the front line. The Russians stay in the camp, sending the blacks and internationals to the front to occupy and advance.”
According to a 2024 Bloomberg report, European officials said the Kremlin has forced thousands of migrants and foreign students to fight its war against Ukraine. The investigation also cited Ukrainian intelligence reports that revealed details of Russia’s global recruiting campaign to enlist foreigner fighters in at least 21 countries, including several nations in Africa. Recruiters have targeted migrants and students who previously looked for employment in Russia.
Samuel said he was tricked into leaving his native Cameroon, where he worked for the Ministry of Lands, Cadastre and Land Affairs in Yaoundé in May 2024. A friend had referred him to a job opportunity in Russia, and Samuel said he was told he would be “a caretaker with tasks like cleaning and cooking.”
“I didn’t know that I had just accepted a trip to the valley of the shadow of death,” he said.
He arrived in a military camp, was given a uniform and an AK-47 assault rifle and was forced to sign a contract. Samuel said he reached out to the Cameroonian Embassy for help but got none.
“They deny any knowledge of our presence here, even though there are so many of us,” he said. “They’re covering up human trafficking.”
Samuel’s story is one of a growing number that are finding their way into media reports. A Central African man told The Africa Report magazine that he was recruited under false pretenses by a Russian Wagner mercenary in Bangui. He was sent to a military camp in the Belgorod region of Russia, where he and other Central Africans and Cameroonians joined thousands of fighters.
“We weren’t given any information. We were told to go in a certain direction, and we just had to obey,” he told The Africa Report. “We were told to go and recover corpses or to travel several kilometers just to spot targets, until the Ukrainians retaliated.”
The horrors of modern warfare came as a shock to Samuel, who saw many of his fellow African conscripts killed on the battlefield.
In November 2024, an estimated 45,680 Russians died in the war, according to The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. It was the deadliest month of fighting since the war began and speaks to the Kremlin’s “cannon-fodder” strategy.
Samuel said the reality on the ground is much worse for foreign fighters.
“We have to move forward, we’re not allowed to retreat,” he said. “If you back out, you’re tortured. We have to move forward to occupy the ground. But we’re very poorly equipped.
“The Russians have machines to jam the waves of drones, but they keep them to themselves. They send us to fight and die with nothing at all.”
In mid-December 2024, Samuel was recovering from another injury when he sent a message to RFI.
“Tomorrow, they want us to go on a suicide mission,” he wrote. “I’m going to drop the gun so I don’t have to go. I’ll probably be tortured and sent to prison, but I’d rather save my life.”
It was among the last messages they would receive from him.
