Africa suffers Russia's war against Ukraine as some leaders play games

When Uganda’s military chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, declared his support for Russia and claimed that Ukrainians were killing Africans—and would be killed in Africa—several Ugandans caught up in Russia’s war against Ukraine were desperately trying to escape forced conscription, fearing they would be used as expendable fighters for Moscow.

A video of a 44-year-old Ugandan man who had managed to escape from Russia’s war frontlines seemed to send out a cry for rescue from the suffering that Africans were going through in Russia’s racist military.

Kantorana Richard solemnly narrated his ordeal, calling for Africans not to fall into the trap of accepting ‘any job offers in Russia.’

“To my fellow Africans wherever you are, I warn you. I am telling you the truth. Don’t fall in the trap,” he says,  “They are promising you well-paying jobs in Russia. You are going to land in the army, it is a lie! They are lying…they are lying. They don’t tell the truth. When you reach there, they force you to sign a contract at gunpoint. Imagine in a battle, imagine to die for nothing. It is better to stay in Africa, with your people. It is better to stay with your children. Please don’t come, don’t be deceived! “

Whether this video reached Mohoozi or not, to give him a message that his own people were victims of Russia’s game of using men from the Global South as disposables in its war - thereby saving Russian blood from the exigencies of the long -drawn conflict with Ukraine, the general, in his post played into the Russian narrative of blaming Ukraine over imaginary ills- which has been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s way since launching the war in February 2022.

"I recently saw a video of Ukrainians killing Africans in their war.” Muhoozi said on his X platform “I want to promise them that we shall kill them too in Africa."

As Africa reacted to Muhoozi’s post during the third week of January, videos that had been leaked from the Russian frontlines and shared sent out messages that Moscow was in-fact using Africans as suicide bombers to cement their roles as quick disposables in its war against Ukraine.

One video released in early January showed an African mercenary with an explosive device attached to his body being forced through a trench at gunpoint and commanded to attack Ukrainian positions. The Russian soldier speaking in the background, using racist language, tells the recruit he is being deployed as a "can opener" to run through the woods and detonate himself to "open" an enemy bunker.

Another video, released during the second Sunday of January by United 24 Media depicted new African mercenaries in a snow-laden forest singing in Kiswahili- the accent was definitely not Tanzanian nor Kenyan, which pointed to Uganda. The Russian soldier recording the scene comments away from the camera eye: "look how many disposables there are."

Mocking the troops, he further adds: "They will be singing differently" once they reach the front line.

The Telegraph at the time quoted Ukrainian ambassador in South Africa Olexander Scherba discussing last year’s controversy involving members of a South African political party with connections to Moscow. Scherba said the matter demonstrated the Kremlin "did not care about its allies."

Speaking at the Ukrainian embassy in Pretoria, the ambassador said: "There 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."

Scherba added that the scandal showed that Russia "looks at Africa through imperial eyes."

Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has joined other African countries in warning their citizens about fraudulent schemes offering employment or educational opportunities in Russia, which ultimately result in recruits being deployed to war frontlines.

Prime Cabinet Secretary, in an end-of-year interview with KTN said: “This challenge is affecting other African countries, so I don’t want to single out Kenya as the only target. …It is for us to share information amongst ourselves as African countries, so that everybody is aware. That not everybody who comes to offer these opportunities is playing a clean game.”

Kantorana, in the video, said he was born in 1982 in Uganda. He has a wife and two daughters, living in a two-room apartment in the Ugandan city. Before he was duped into serving in the Russian army, he was doing menial jobs in Kampala

“I used to work as a cleaner in a Supermarket, sometimes as a boda boda (motorbike taxi) cyclist,” he says.

In the video, the now Russian frontline escapee, a prisoner of war in Ukraine,  says one day while he was working in the streets of the Ugandan capital when somebody, whose name he did not reveal, found him and said there were jobs for men his age and who could speak passable English, in Russia.

“Jobs to work in a supermarket, jobs to work in the factory, security guard at the airport, a cleaner and they are well paying jobs. Then I said OK ….”

After landing in Russia and being taken through a suspicious process of registrations including opening bank accounts without being allowed to ask any questions, they found themselves headed to nondescript forested lands.

“Reaching there, we saw the gate opening automatically and they said, you have entered here, but sorry guys you are joining Russian military” Kantora says.

“Then we told them that ‘umhumhu, this is not what brought us here’. They said ‘there is nothing you can do, you can’t cross the gate. The gate is locked’. They put us on gunpoint and said ‘you sign these papers...’ at gunpoint (Kantora demonstrates on video -his hand on his neck…)

Him and three colleagues ensnared in Kampala had been joined by others from other parts of Africa were dumped on a lorry- a big truck.

“It was at night at 1am. They drove us. We did not know where we were. My colleagues, started saying ‘OK, let us jump and commit suicide..’ I told them no, don’t commit suicide. We are innocent, don’t commit suicide. And they drove us …..put us in a place which was dark …..in the forest! And they were telling us this is Russian army.”

At the army barracks they were moved into some underground holding ground which Kantorana describes as hell

“Underground was horrible, it was a bad place. There were bed bugs… biting us as we slept on the ground and our only food was biscuits and water”

Interestingly Kantorana, who had not even for a single moment imagined himself turning into a soldier serving in the Russian army despite being dispatched on the frontline, managed an escape.

“I escaped at dark. I threw everything down, I ran, I ran, I ran…” He does not reveal where he was by the time he found an escape route. He only says that he ran and found himself within Ukrainian held territories and with his hands up in the air he kept crying out for help.

 “I said help! Help me please, I am innocent help me. Then they stopped. They said turn around. They said ‘where are you coming from? This is Ukrainian army, feel OK, you are in safe hands now. Don’t worry’ …”

He says he was given water, and  “…..they gave me some things to drink. They said don’t panic you are safe”

Kantorana’s tale is a testimony of reports by Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha about Russia duping and coercing Africans into its war with Ukraine. Ukrainian ambassador to Kenya Yurii Tokar estimates the number to be totals to be 1,500. African men conscripted onto the war front where they are used as expendables in the place of Russian blood.

“According to our data around 1,500 Africans were lured or tricked into this war by Russian recruiters. Lives of Africans are considered by the aggressor an expendable: cheap and easier to replace,” said Tokar

 “This is how this war of aggression has slowly turned into a war of consumption – publicly framed as opportunity and cooperation, while driven by deception”.

The Ugandan escapee now p.o.w in Ukraine says “I have escaped by God’s grace. But my fellow people are in jail. I don’t know where they are. Don’t come don’t come, stay home. Please they are liars, they are liars they are lying!”