Botswana has become the latest African country to accuse Russia of tricking its citizens into fighting against Ukraine, luring them abroad with fake job offers and then forcing them into combat, Bloomberg reported. The government told its people to treat foreign work offers with suspicion, warning that the scheme is spreading fast. The move echoes alarms raised across the continent as Russia scours Africa for soldiers to feed its war.
Botswana sounds the alarm on a recruitment trap
Botswana's Ministry of International Relations issued the warning in a statement on 18 July. It said a growing number of its nationals are being coerced into Russian military service, and urged everyone to confirm that any overseas job offer is real before accepting it.
The ministry described people drawn out of the country under false pretenses, only to be pushed onto the battlefield once they arrive.
"The number of Batswana being misled into such arrangements is rising at an alarming rate," the ministry said, using the term for Botswana's citizens. It added that it "continues to receive heartbreaking calls from Batswana already on the front line, describing the perilous conditions they face."
Botswana joins Kenya and South Africa
The warning places Botswana alongside other African states that have traced the same pipeline. In Kenya and South Africa, prosecutors have already detained and charged suspects accused of funneling recruits into Moscow's ranks.
The European Parliament went further in March, condemning the practice as human trafficking and describing recruits who were deceived, stripped of their documents, and treated as expendable.
The toll is already counted in the dead
The recruitment has a body count. Inpact, the nonprofit behind the All Eyes On Wagner project, reported in February that Russia's war has already claimed at least 316 African lives, with most of the dead sent to the front barely trained.
Kenya, on its own, has put at 1,000 the number of its nationals swept into Moscow's military.
