Waiting for Moses: Africa’s sons in Russia’s war

Mama Regina’s home stands between the port of Douala and the city’s slums. On the wall hangs a portrait of her son, Moses. His smile belongs to another life. For more than a year, she has waited – not for her son, but for his body. Moses was fighting alongside Russian forces when he came under Ukrainian fire, shot as he ran towards the trenches. “He left for me,” she says quietly. “To fight another man’s war.”

According to Ukrainian officials, nearly 3,000 Africans from 35 countries are fighting for Russia – a result, Kyiv says, of active recruitment across the continent. Former Russian army officer Sergey Elidonov denies those claims. “All these stories about recruitment networks – they don’t exist,” he says. “Russia offers the pay and conditions. If people want to come, they find their own way.”

Elidonov argues Cameroon’s prominence among recruits is historical. “The relationship goes back to the Soviet Union,” he says. “Large numbers of Cameroonian students studied there. There has been a Cameroonian diaspora in Russia for decades.” Economics explains the rest: “People are desperate. They want to support their families.”

Professor Aicha Pemboura, who researches the phenomenon, says many recruits are experienced soldiers hardened by fighting Boko Haram, separatists and pirates. But students, unemployed graduates and young men also go, often believing they are travelling for work or education before signing military contracts. “What we’re seeing is a new type of migration,” she says. “People leave with hope for a better future. It doesn’t replace other migration routes – it is simply one more route.” Pemboura warns the war in Ukraine is quietly draining African countries of soldiers, students and skilled workers – all a loss for Africa.

Mama Regina is waiting for a body. Without one, there can be no funeral, no grave, no final prayer. A body is proof that a son existed, that he fought, that he was loved, that this distant war has entered African lives.