Welcome to Foreign Policy\u2019s Africa Brief.<\/p>\n
The highlights this week: Hundreds of Africans are reportedly tricked into joining Russian forces<\/strong> in Ukraine, Nigeria hires a U.S. lobbying firm<\/strong> to shore up its reputation, and Uganda\u2019s opposition leader <\/strong>rejects the results of last week\u2019s general elections.<\/p>\n Sign up<\/a> to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday.<\/p>\n Sign up to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday.<\/p>\n \n Sign Up\n <\/p>\n By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.<\/p>\n \n Enter your email<\/p>\n Sign Up Recent weeks have shed a spotlight on the estimated hundreds of Africans with no military background who have been lured<\/a> to Russia under false job promises and subsequently sent to the front line in Ukraine after receiving only a few days<\/a> of basic training. Some are even reportedly being forced to become suicide bombers<\/a> to target Ukrainian positions.<\/p>\n Last week, a video<\/a> circulated online that showed a young African soldier, who identified himself as Francis, with an explosive strapped to his chest\u2014thought to be a TM-62 anti-tank mine. He appeared to be forced at gunpoint to run toward a Ukrainian bunker.<\/p>\n In the video, a man speaking Russian uses racial slurs and tells a terrified Francis, \u201cWhat the fuck are you scared of? Don\u2019t shit yourself.\u201d Francis can be heard shouting, \u201cNo, no, no.\u201d<\/p>\n Reports of this kind are not unusual, Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia research fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, told Foreign Policy. \u201cWe have seen numerous reports of misuse and mistreatment of foreign recruits,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time, we do see Russians use foreigners in these frontal assaults \u2026 so more experienced [Russian] troops can step in and advance further,\u201d Stepanenko added. \u201cIn the past, the Russians relied on prisoners<\/a> to do this job.\u201d<\/p>\n Stepanenko also noted that there are \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cxenophobic\u201d undertones to Russian troops\u2019 treatment of the recruits.<\/p>\n Another video<\/a> that went viral last week showed young African men in combat fatigues singing in the snow. A man behind the camera appeared to laugh at the troops, saying<\/a> in Russian, \u201cLook how many disposable ones there are here.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukraine has estimated<\/a> that more than 1,400 people from 36 African nations are fighting for Russia. (Some have voluntarily gone to the country as mercenaries.) In November, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described<\/a> the contracts that they must agree to\u2014which are often in Russian<\/a>\u2014as \u201cequivalent to signing a death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n Once in Russia, African recruits have their passports confiscated and serve as \u201ccannon fodder\u201d to break through fortified positions, according to a December report<\/a> by the French Institute of International Relations.<\/p>\n Out of a group of 14 Ghanaians lured to Russia in August 2024 on the promise of security work and agricultural jobs, only three<\/a> were known to be alive a month later.<\/p>\n \u201cThere might be all kinds of charm offensives on the African continent, but once an African person comes to this war, they just become meat for the meat grinder,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to South Africa, Olexander Scherba, recently told<\/a> the Telegraph.<\/p>\n Young Africans have become a prime target for Russia as the continent faces a severe unemployment<\/a> crisis, with youth populations outpacing<\/a> available jobs. More than 121 million<\/a> young Africans are unemployed or not in school, according to Afrobarometer.<\/p>\n As Russia runs out of domestic<\/a> and voluntary recruits, over the past year, it has found more elaborate ways<\/a> to generate new soldiers, Stepanenko said. Moscow has eased citizenship laws<\/a> in a bid to attract foreign recruits. Meanwhile, the Russian military has reportedly recruited Africans via gaming apps<\/a> and social media platforms such as Discord.<\/p>\n Russia has also turned to the promise of high wages. Recruitment agencies<\/a> and freelance headhunters have offered Africans fake civilian jobs with salaries<\/a> of up to $2,000 per month<\/a>\u2014a figure that is much higher than the average monthly salary in most African nations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen advertisements in certain Russian regions offering compensation to regular Russian citizens for recruiting a foreigner,\u201d Stepanenko said. \u201cThey would offer 50,000 rubles if a person recruited was Russian and 150,000 rubles for a person who was a foreigner.\u201d<\/p>\n Moscow\u2019s recruitment efforts have spanned the continent. In December, five South Africans were charged with alleged involvement in the recruitment of 17 men after Pretoria received distress calls from the men trapped in Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region. They had reportedly been promised<\/a>\u00a0education or jobs as bodyguards<\/a> but were trafficked to Ukraine.<\/p>\n That month, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, resigned from parliament over charges that she tricked<\/a> men from Botswana and South Africa into fighting in Russia. She denies the allegations.<\/p>\n In a November statement<\/a>, the South African government \u201cstrongly\u201d condemned \u201cthe exploitation of young vulnerable people by individuals working with foreign military entities.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kenya\u2019s government said<\/a> in December that it was looking into reports of at least 200 men duped into enlisting after it received \u201cmultiple emails\u201d from Kenyans \u201cin distress in various military camps\u201d in Russia.<\/p>\n In September, Kenyan police rescued 22 people who were about to be trafficked to Russia. The individuals had pledged to pay up to $18,000<\/a> each for visas, accommodation, and travel. One Kenyan athlete has also claimed that he was lured to Russia last summer with an offer of an all-expenses-paid trip<\/a> to compete in a fake athletics festival.<\/p>\n African nations are not Russia\u2019s only target; Moscow also recruits<\/a> heavily from neighboring Central Asia<\/a> as well as South Asia<\/a> and Latin America<\/a>.<\/p>\n These recruitments help to prolong the war in Ukraine. \u201c[Putin\u2019s] theory of victory is that Russia will just outlast Ukraine on the battlefield and outlast Western support,\u201d Stepanenko said.<\/p>\n Thursday, Jan. 22: <\/strong>The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee holds a hearing on advancing peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.<\/p>\n Tuesday, Jan. 27, to Friday, Jan. 30: <\/strong>The Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum is held in Mbabane, Eswatini.<\/p>\n Nigerian dealmaking.<\/strong> Abuja has reportedly hired<\/a> U.S. lobbying firm DCI Group for $4.5 million to defend its reputation amid rampant U.S. claims of Christian persecution<\/a> and to improve trade ties with Washington, as bilateral relations have soured in recent months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are pleased to support the Nigerian government in communicating its ongoing and expanding efforts to protect Christians and people of all faiths from radical jihadist groups and other destabilizing elements,\u201d a spokesperson for the firm told Reuters.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is pursuing trade deals with Gulf nations. A new pact announced<\/a> on Thursday will see the United Arab Emirates remove tariffs on more than 7,000 Nigerian products. As part of the deal, the two nations also plan to co-host<\/a> the Investopia investment forum in Lagos in February.<\/p>\n Abuja is also seeking<\/a> a deal with Saudi Arabia to support the establishment of gold refining and lithium processing plants in Nigeria.<\/p>\n Uganda\u2019s elections. <\/strong>President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, ostensibly won a seventh term in office in last week\u2019s general elections. According to official results, Museveni secured 71.6 percent<\/a> of the vote, compared with opposition leader Bobi Wine\u2019s 24.7 percent.<\/p>\n Wine rejected the result and claimed<\/a> on X that there was \u201c[m]assive ballot stuffing reported everywhere.\u201d Election observers decried<\/a> \u201creports of intimidation, arrest and abductions\u201d toward opposition figures and civil society but did not find evidence of ballot stuffing.<\/p>\n Ugandan authorities cut off internet access throughout the country days before Thursday\u2019s election and only restored<\/a> it on Saturday.<\/p>\n This is the second presidential election in which Wine has finished second. The 2021 vote was also marred by allegations of fraud, violence, and state repression. Following the election, security forces surrounded Wine\u2019s residence and put him under house arrest<\/a> for 11 days. Uganda\u2019s High Court eventually ruled<\/a> that the move was unlawful.<\/p>\n U.S.-Egypt relations.<\/strong> On Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi welcomed<\/a> U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s recent offer<\/a> to mediate Egypt\u2019s long-standing dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo views as a threat to its water security.<\/p>\n Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has not commented on Trump\u2019s offer. Addis Ababa previously rejected<\/a> Trump\u2019s mediation in 2020, when Trump suggested that Egypt would \u201cblow up\u201d the dam.<\/p>\n South Africa has pulled out<\/a> of this year\u2019s Venice Biennale after canceling<\/a> artist Gabrielle Goliath\u2019s exhibition, Elegy, which addresses violence in Gaza, among other issues.<\/p>\n Part of the work features<\/a> words by Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed in her home by an Israeli airstrike in 2023.<\/p>\n South African Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said that the Gaza-related content was \u201chighly divisive\u201d and argued that South Africa\u2019s pavilion should be used to tell the country\u2019s own story. In a statement<\/a>,<\/a> he claimed that a foreign power (reported<\/a> by the Daily Maverick to be Qatar Museums) was attempting to use South Africa\u2019s pavilion to \u201cpush their own agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n McKenzie heads South Africa\u2019s Patriotic Alliance, a controversial right-wing<\/a> political party formed in 2013, which joined the ruling government of national unity<\/a> coalition after the African National Congress lost its absolute majority in the 2024 elections.<\/p>\n Controversial study.<\/strong> In the Washington Post, Tobi Raji reports<\/a> on a controversial project\u2014backed by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2014that would delay the administration of hepatitis B vaccines to 7,000<\/a> newborns in Guinea-Bissau to study vaccine dose timing.<\/p>\n The $1.6 million project has been widely criticized, including<\/a> by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Africa faces a high burden of hepatitis B infections and mother-to-child transmissions due to lack of vaccine<\/a> access.<\/p>\n \u201cNo ethical board in the U.S. would ever approve of something like this,\u201d Jessica Malaty Rivera, a member of Defend Public Health, told Raji. \u201cOf course they would go to a place where they can get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Foreign Policy\u2019s Africa Brief. The highlights this week: Hundreds of Africans are reportedly tricked into joining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[2740,60162,122898,332,24666,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-711474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-homepage_regional_middle_east_africa","10":"tag-paywall-free","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-ukraine-russia","13":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115934846444973050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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