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In an investigation by Global Sentinel, a Ugandan national recounts how an apparently civilian job offer led him, against his will, into detention and assignment to activities linked to the war in Ukraine, following travel organised through opaque circuits associated with Russian cultural structures in Africa.
His testimony is one of the cases documented in an investigation published on January 20, 2026, which sheds light on high-risk recruitment trajectories affecting African youths with limited employment prospects.
According to his account, the man — who was simply seeking work in private security or commercial distribution — was approached by a local intermediary operating within the ecosystem of activities surrounding “Russian Houses.”
He says he obtained a visa quickly, without thorough consular procedures, and travelled to Russia via regional hubs. Once there, he claims he was held in closed facilities, subjected to armed pressure and assigned to tasks directly linked to the conflict in Ukraine.
He later says he managed to escape after a period of detention and joined Ukrainian forces, following verification of his identity and status. This Ugandan case illustrates a broader dynamic observed in several African countries: young people, often lacking stable professional footing, are connected to networks combining job offers, facilitated visas and transitions into closed environments, sometimes with no possibility of return.
Investigations show that these paths do not involve explicit military recruitment at the outset, but rather gradual shifts enabled by contractual opacity and the socio-economic vulnerability of the candidates.
“Russian Houses”, which fall under the Russian federal agency Rossotrudnichestvo, are officially centres for promoting the Russian language and culture. Unlike other international cultural institutes, their operations in Africa rely heavily on local partnerships and private intermediaries.
This decentralisation blurs lines of responsibility and creates room for manoeuvre for non- institutional actors. Across several testimonies, the reported steps converge: attractive promises of civilian employment, rapid visa issuance without strict consular scrutiny, transit through regional platforms, and subsequent confinement in closed facilities upon arrival in Russia, where options for return are blocked.
These accounts do not point to prior ideological commitment, but rather to an aspiration for international professional mobility offered through poorly regulated channels. Another documented case concerns Nigeria.
According to an investigation published in January 2026, Bankole Manchi, a 36-year-old Nigerian mechanic, says he was recruited through what was presented as a lawful, well-paid civilian job offer.
He explained that he obtained a visa quickly and transited through several regional hubs before arriving in Russia. Based on Manchi’s testimony, his documents were confiscated shortly after entry, and he was transferred to a closed site where he underwent rudimentary military training before being deployed to Ukraine.
Wounded in combat, he describes a process marked by the absence of informed consent and the impossibility of withdrawing once the journey had begun. A recurring element is the central role of local intermediaries.
In the cases examined, routes rarely pass through embassies or standard consular services. Instead, they rely on placement agents, associative networks, or community or religious contacts that lend social legitimacy to poorly documented offers.
This is not to conclude that all “Russian Houses” in Africa are involved in such practices. However, the investigations indicate that in the absence of a strict regulatory framework and effective oversight of international mobility channels, these structures can become embedded in circuits where the risk of abuse increases, exposing young people to situations of coercion.
For Ugandan and African authorities, these findings underscore the need for stronger legal regulation of foreign cultural centres, better supervision of professional mobility intermediaries, and improved public information on the risks associated with such complex trajectories.
The writer is an economist who focuses on developing countries.
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