‘Our children were sold off’: The South Africans sent to fight Russia’s war
Al Jazeera
Men ‘lured’ into fighting in the Ukraine war say Africans were subjected to worse treatment on the front lines.
Durban, South Africa – When Sipho Dlamini* stepped off a plane from Russia, returning home to the South African port city of Durban last week, he carried nothing but the clothes on his back.
“They made us burn everything we had,” the 32-year-old said. “Clothes, documents, even family photos. From the start, it was hell.”
Dlamini is one of more than a dozen South Africans repatriated from Russia, where they say they were lured under false pretences and thrust onto the front lines of the war in Ukraine – mirroring the experience of other African men from countries including Kenya and Zimbabwe.
In November last year, it came to light that several South Africans aged between 20 and 39 had been sent to Russia for what they believed would be security training. But soon after, they were conscripted into a paramilitary group and sent to fight in Ukraine.
At the centre of the controversy is Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla – a daughter of South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma – who resigned as a lawmaker in December after she was implicated in the recruitment drive and the police opened an investigation against her.
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