A new investigation says agents, brokers and middlemen have made more than Sh6.5 billion (about $50 million) from African men who were recruited to fight for Russia in its war with Ukraine. The findings raise hard questions about how well African governments are protecting their citizens, even as many of them grow closer to Moscow.

The report, titled The Death Contract, was released on Thursday by the investigative group Journalists For Justice (JFJ). It came out just as African leaders were meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. J

FJ says it has identified at least 3,034 Africans from 40 countries who have been recruited into the Russian armed forces since October 2022. By the end of June 2026, at least 502 of them had been confirmed killed in action. The investigators warn that the real number could be higher.

Kenya has the biggest number of documented cases, with 841 men. Egypt follows with 407, then Cameroon with 383, Ghana with 337, Nigeria with 214 and Uganda with 108.

According to JFJ, money was the main thing that drew most of the men. Recruits were promised a signing bonus of about 1.9 million roubles, which is around $23,400. But the report says the agencies and Russian handlers took a big cut. 

They deducted between one million and 1.4 million roubles, leaving many recruits with only about 900,000 roubles, or roughly $11,100. The money was taken straight from the recruits' Russian bank accounts within 35 days of signing their contracts, and it amounted to between 58 and 66 per cent of the bonus.

JFJ built this picture using contracts obtained from Global Face Human Resources Limited, a Kenyan recruitment agency that sits at the centre of the investigation. The group estimates that Global Face may have earned more than $8.9 million in agency fees from about 500 Kenyan men sent to Russia between May 2025 and February 2026. 

Other Kenyan agencies and middlemen are said to have collected a further $18 million or more. On top of that, informal brokers in Kenya reportedly charged individuals between Sh50,000 and Sh200,000. In Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroon, some recruits are said to have paid between $5,000 and $7,000 to middlemen.

The investigation found that the network reached across Africa and beyond. Its targets included jobseekers, migrant workers in Gulf countries, and students in Russia who were struggling with visa problems. In some cases, even prisoners were recruited. JFJ described the Kenyan pipeline as a big commercial business that allegedly ran in plain sight, with officials looking the other way at several levels.

That last point is one of the most serious in the report. JFJ says officials from immigration, criminal investigations, intelligence and employment services were named in Parliament in connection with helping the recruitment operation. Yet none of the officials identified has been prosecuted. 

A director of Global Face is facing charges under counter-trafficking laws. However, the report notes that the charge does not use Section 68 of the Penal Code, which makes it a crime to enlist, or help a Kenyan citizen to enlist, in a foreign military.

The report also looks at what happened to the men after they reached Russia. JFJ surveyed the families of 57 Kenyan recruits and found that, on average, only 44 days passed between a man arriving in Russia and his death, hospitalisation or disappearance. It also found that training had been cut sharply. Some Kenyans deployed in 2025 got only three days of military training, while some recruits in 2023 received up to six weeks.

These findings come a few months after Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi travelled to Moscow in March 2026 and secured a promise from Russia to stop recruiting Kenyans through its Ministry of Defence. JFJ says, however, that the promise does not seem to cover private companies that supply the war effort.

JFJ is now calling on African governments to investigate recruitment agencies and brokers, and to hold accountable any officials who helped the networks. It also wants stronger protection for jobseekers and proper systems to bring affected citizens back home. 

The group criticised African governments for putting bilateral diplomacy ahead of joint action. It noted that as of May 2026, no African government had completed a formal prisoner-of-war exchange or set up a fund to help bring victims home.

JFJ says it will keep investigating the fate of Africans who have been reported missing, killed or held as prisoners of war.