Anne Ndarua fights back tears when she talks about her only son. Six months ago, Francis Ndung’u Ndarua went to Russia on the promise of a job as an electrical engineer. She hasn’t been able to reach him since October and is no longer sure if he’s alive.
In December, someone sent Anne a video of her son warning other Africans not to travel to Russia for any job offers. “You’ll end up being taken to the military even if you’ve never served in the military, and you’re taken to the frontline battle. And there are true killings,” he says in the video, sent from an unknown Kenyan number. “Many friends have died in the name of money.”
About a week later, a disturbing video of Francis went viral on social media. In uniform, with a land mine strapped to his chest, he appears scared as a Russian speaker, using racist slurs, says he will be used as a “can-opener” to breach Ukrainian army positions.
“It’s so traumatizing,” Anne told CNN, saying she hadn’t watched it after her daughter described the video to her. Distraught at his plight, she only agreed to be interviewed as a last-ditch effort to try to jolt the Kenyan and Russian governments into action.
“I’m appealing to the Kenyan and Russian governments to work together to bring those children home,” she said. “They lied to them about real jobs and now they’re in war with their lives in danger.”
Francis, 35, was unemployed and living with his mother in a small community outside the Kenyan capital before he left, having paid about $620 to an agent to facilitate the opportunity. Anne was surprised when Francis informed the family he was being forced into military training when he got to Russia. He was deployed to Ukraine after just three weeks of basic training, she says.
Francis is one of a growing number of Africans fighting for Russia in Ukraine, though exact figures are not known.
A CNN investigation has uncovered new details around the recruitment tactics of Russian agents on the continent, exposing the rosy promises made to African job hunters and the reality of forced military service and bloody frontline fighting that many instead find. CNN reviewed hundreds of chats on messaging apps, military contracts, visas, flights and hotel bookings, as well as gathering first-hand accounts from African fighters in Ukraine, to understand just how Russia entices African men to bolster its ranks.
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