94 Cameroonians killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine - Report.

The report also indicated that there are at least 1,417 fighters from 35 nations in Africa, on the side of Russia, on the war front against Ukraine. 

The same Group indicated that the number was recruited between 2023 and the first half of 2025. It added that some 316 of such Africans fighting for Russia have been killed.

Quoting the Ukrainian scheme, “I Want to Live”, which is drumming the need for such foreigners in the Russian army to withdraw, Egypt tops the list of African countries with nationals fighting for Russia. 

The Gambia, it further disclosed, has 56 nationals on the war front in Russia’s military, with at least 23 killed already. AEOW puts the casualty rate among the African recruits at 22 percent, excluding those injured and others still missing.

The same organisation said Africans recruited by Russia to fight against Ukraine are within the age bracket of 18 to 57. 

Media reports quote Lou Osborne, an official of AEOW, as having stated that the recently released report will update families on the situation of their loved ones.

He is said to have noted that families who have not heard from those on the war front could “…contact national authorities to request the return of the bodies of those killed, and to take action on these recruitments, which have become increasingly numerous as the invasion of Ukraine becomes bogged down”.

AEOW also indicated in its report that Russia has since 2023 been on the offensive in diversifying its military man power with nationals from especially African countries being recruited.

This, the organisation said, are extra measures in addition to the use of prisoners as soldiers. The same report indicated that: "Far from being a side effect, this recruitment forms the backbone of a strategy built around injecting fighters into the assault waves used to overwhelm Ukrainian defense lines”.

Recently, the French Institute of International Relations, IFRI, released another report on the same Russian recruitments.

Titled: "Russia's Recruitment Policy of Fighters and Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa", the report had projected that between 18 and 20 Russian fighters are African nationals of between three and four countries.”

IFRI had indicated in the report that Russia targets "poor urban youth who see economic emigration as a solution to a better life and understand that Europe is an increasingly inaccessible destination”.

The same organisation claimed that recruits are often deceived with fake offers of training and employment, given their economic dreams. 

IFRI noted that: “These abusive and misleading recruitment practices amount to a form of human trafficking, the most tragic consequence of which is the use of amateur mercenaries as cannon fodder on the front lines".

In the last couple of days, there have been multiple media reports on African recruits fighting for Russia in Ukraine. 

The United States-based Cable News Network, CNN, days ago, aired a video which it said was from a relative of a Kenyan whose picture was flooded on social media.

Analysis of the video gave to understanding that the Kenyan, identified only as Francis, was tied to a landmine and being called derogatory names.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3708 of Thursday February 19, 2026