Nairobi/At least 16 Cameroonian citizens died fighting for the Russian side in the Ukrainian war, as confirmed by Russian authorities to the Government of Cameroon, while information about Africans recruited by Moscow increases.
“Acknowledging receipt of your note verbale (…) of March 5, 2025, by which you (the Russian Embassy in Cameroon) reported the death of sixteen (16) contracted soldiers of Cameroonian nationality who were serving in the zone of special military operations,” as Moscow refers to its offensive in Ukraine, reads a letter from the Cameroonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated this Monday and addressed to the Russian mission.
In the letter, sent in response to the aforementioned note and collected this Tuesday by local media, the Ministry informed the Russian Embassy that “the appropriate measures have been taken to contact the families of those affected” and that it will keep it informed.
The Ministry did not detail how the deaths occurred or whether they had enrolled as mercenaries or had been recruited in a deceptive manner.
He then listed the names of the deceased and encouraged their families to contact the authorities of the African country.
The Ministry did not detail how the deaths occurred or whether the Cameroonians had voluntarily enrolled as mercenaries or had been deceptively recruited by Moscow.
Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have reported the presence of at least 1,780 Africans from 36 countries fighting on the Russian side.
An investigation published last February by the INPACT research group, based in Switzerland, estimated at least 1,417 Africans recruited by Moscow until then, including more than 300 deaths, among which Cameroon had the greatest weight, with 94 deaths.
Although some participate voluntarily as mercenaries, others have reported deception and coercion that, according to experts, could constitute cases of human trafficking.
kyiv has also reported that citizens of countries such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cuba and Sri Lanka, among others, were captured, although most die or are seriously injured before being taken as prisoners of war.
