By Joshua Odeyemi with agency reports
A key figure in a network that sent more than 1,000 Kenyans to fight for the Russian army was charged on Thursday with human trafficking, the state prosecutor said.
Festus Omwamba, 33, the founder of recruitment agency Global Face Human Resources, who allegedly used to funnel Kenyans to Russia, was presented in court following his arrest in Moyale, a border town with Ethiopia.
In a post on X, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said Omwamba is accused “to have recruited twenty-two Kenyan youths to Russia for exploitation by means of deception.”
According to the state prosecutor, 22 “victims of human trafficking were rescued” in a police operation last September, while three others who found themselves on the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war returned home with injuries.
More than 1,000 Kenyans have joined the Russian army in recent months, Kenyan MP Kimani Ichung’wah told parliament last week, citing a joint report from the intelligence services and DCI.
Several media outlets, including AFP, have reported on the forced conscription of many Africans.
Many had no military experience and were promised lucrative civilian jobs in Russia, only to be forced to sign contracts with the army and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine with limited training, where many have died.
AFP recently spoke with four Kenyans – three wounded – who made it home. One thought he was going for a job as a salesman, two thought they would be security guards, and the fourth was a high-level athlete.
All were recruited through Global Face Human Resources and had denounced Omwamba’s role in the deception, along with one of his employees, Edward Gituku, who is currently being prosecuted for human trafficking.
The Russian embassy in Kenya denied the accusations last week, calling them a “dangerous and misleading propaganda campaign”.
‘Two South Africans died in Russia war’
Several South Africans remain in Russia, and at least two have died fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said Thursday after 15 men reportedly tricked into joining mercenary forces were repatriated.
Eleven men landed back in South Africa on Wednesday, part of a group of 17 who requested help from Pretoria after they were trapped for months in the epicentre of the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Four arrived back home last week, while two remained in Russia to receive medical treatment for “very severe” injuries, Lamola said.
“There are other South Africans that we have since discovered were part of the process, and… we have since discovered that some have also died,” Lamola told state broadcaster SABC.
The government was “notified by the Russian embassy” of two men who had died, he said, who had been “part of another recruitment drive or another scheme”.
The minister did not specify how many South Africans remained on the frontlines.
The first group of 17 men were allegedly sent to Russia for security guard training by the opposition Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, which is headed by ex-president Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s leader between 2009 and 2018.
One of Zuma’s daughters, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, resigned from parliament after claims she was involved in recruiting the men.
South African law prohibits its citizens from fighting for a foreign country’s army without government authorisation.
Ukraine said on Wednesday that more than 1,780 citizens from 36 African countries had been identified among Russia’s ranks, and that some of them had been captured.
Many Nigerians fighting in Russia
There have been reports of many Nigerians deceived to migrate to Russia, and also fighting in Ukraine.
Last week, the Federal Government of Nigeria warned against the illegal recruitment of Nigerian citizens into foreign armed conflicts.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, expressed grave concern over the rising and alarming cases of Nigerian citizens being illegally recruited to participate in foreign armed conflicts.
According to him, recent media investigations and security reports indicated that Nigerian nationals were allegedly recruited under false pretences, including promises of lucrative employment, security jobs, educational opportunities, or migration incentives.
Daily Trust, quoting sources familiar with the matter, recently reported that at least four Nigerians allegedly recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine were killed on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Andrey Podyelyshev, has since denied reports that Nigerians are being conscripted to fight in Ukraine.
But the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, insisted that Russia is recruiting Nigerians and other Africans to support its war effort in Ukraine.
Mignot made the claim last Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television’s programme, The Morning Brief, as the Russia-Ukraine war marked its fourth anniversary.
“There is another important phenomenon which is impacting Africa, which is the recruitment of African men and women by Russia. Women to be sent to work in military plants in Russia, and men to be sent as cannon fodder on the front. Of course, they are being lured with job promises,” Mignot said.
He alleged that Russia is turning to Africa due to mounting military pressure and a shortage of personnel.
“Russia is running out of soldiers, so they have been increasingly doing that, including with Nigerians, and it’s extremely crude sending these people who have absolutely nothing to do with this war to die on the front,” he said.
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