Kremlin-style colonialism: Russian propaganda is actively preparing Africans for military service in Ukraine

Africa is experiencing economic growth, but it has not been accompanied by a reduction in poverty or an increase in employment opportunities. According to the International Labour Organization, while the average unemployment rate stands at 6.3%, the measure of inadequate access to decent work reaches 17.4%. Youth unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa remains at 8.9%, and the region accounts for 71% of the world’s population living in extreme poverty.

Nominal economic growth has not resolved the problem. In Kenya, for example, GDP per capita grew by 43% between 2005 and 2022, while the share of the population living below the national poverty line declined from 46.8% to 39.8% over. Nevertheless, according to World Bank forecasts, more than 43% of Kenyans will still be living in poverty in 2026.

Kenyan human rights activist Otieno N. told The Insider that poverty is the main factor driving Africans to fight for the Russian army:

“I don’t think young Kenyans would voluntarily fight for Russia. There are no ideological ties that could encourage this. But I would not rule out that someone, desperate to find work or hoping to escape poverty at home, might take the risk of signing a contract.”

Otieno says that before the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, former Kenyan servicemen sometimes found work in Russia in spheres connected to the private security industry. However, after 2022, numerous agencies luring young, unemployed Kenyans with promises of jobs abroad emerged. According to Otieno, corrupt local officials may have received payments from agencies that profited from the “fees” charged to men seeking employment opportunities.

In the comments under a Facebook post about Kenyan men recruited into the Russian army, users write that they, too, would like to contact recruiters and go to war. Many of these users, according to their profiles, live in Kenya and other African countries.

In one of the first comments, a woman from Zimbabwe expresses the view that participation in the war is a conscious choice, while another woman from Ghana asked, “Why would you fight in someone else’s conflict? Don’t they have their own citizens in that country? If they cannot get all their own citizens to fight, why should you risk your life?” However, the comment that received the most likes came from an empty profile claiming that Kenyans needed combat experience in order to “become a superpower nation in the future.”

Other comments include statements such as: “the unemployment situation in Kenya is deadly,” “better to die in battle than die poor, drowning in poverty, I need a job, help me,” and “better to die for a purpose in life than to live uselessly with empty hope here in Kenya… I wish West Africans dying in deserts and at sea trying to reach Europe would also take advantage of this opportunity.”

The Insider contacted several Facebook users who had commented on the issue, and one of them, a Nigerian man named Nwosu, said that he himself had “almost given in to the temptation” to go to the front. However, after thinking it over, he decided against it, seeing no reason to “go and die for the glory of another country.” Nwosu believes that Black men, after only three weeks of firearms training, are being asked to risk their lives in a war in which even well-trained Russian soldiers have been unable to secure victory for several years.

“These people do not love us,” Nwosu says. “Otherwise, why has participation in a deadly war become the only way to come to Russia?” The Nigerian describes the recruitment of African men in financial hardship as fundamentally unjust. “Why not open schools for us with affordable tuition so that we could study and assimilate into their way of life and culture? Then we would come to love them and, guided by love rather than poverty, desperation, or hopelessness, decide to leave our mothers behind in another country in search of a better life.”

His compatriot Ib was more radical in comments to The Insider: “We believe it is better to die earning money than to sit at home and be killed for nothing. Everyone knows that the offer from Russia is a golden opportunity to build a better life back home in the future.”

Ib is convinced that “80% of young people” in Nigeria — and across the continent — would embrace such an opportunity “with open arms.” Among his friends are several Nigerian soldiers who want to defect to the Russian army.

As an example, Ib points to Nigerian serviceman Obiora Okechukwu, who fought alongside Russia against Ukraine and said in his videos that Africans were going to the front voluntarily. According to Ib, their signing bonus amounted to $5,000 – an enormous sum in Nigeria, where the average monthly salary ranged from $60 to $130. According to Ib, Obiora had helped Africans join the Russian Armed Forces but later stopped because they “started twisting their stories once things went bad.”

Ukrainian-American journalist and political analyst Peter Zalmayev, who regularly visits African countries, questioned whether soldiers in Africa are recruited solely through deception. As he told The Insider, “It’s like a conveyor belt: one person goes, then your friend from the village or the neighborhood hears something, then your cousin follows, then you go after your brother, and so on.”

Some Kenyans interviewed by The Insider are convinced that “security work” is simply the explanation recruits themselves invent “so as not to worry their mothers, wives, and children.” Zalmayev considers that possibility plausible: “Perhaps this formula helps them save face with their families and gives the fighters a chance to legalize their status later and avoid prosecution. People can come up with different explanations to justify their choices.”