ALBAWABA - Men from all across the southern side of the African continent are being lured by Russian military contractors into leaving their families and dying in Ukraine.
Rodwin Chitewere, a Zimbabwean mother, would have been celebrating her son’s 23rd birthday, instead she is pleading with the authorities to bring his body back from Ukraine.
Chitwere’s son, Tanaka Muzirikazi, left with his cousin in April from their remote village in eastern Zimbabwe to join the war in Ukraine, his mother, 350km away in the town of Beitbridge only found out about the move through WhatsApp.
Later she received a voice note saying that her son Tanaka has been wounded and would “need God's grace to see if he recovers because it was bad,” Then in July she received a message saying he was dead – having never seen his 23rd birthday.
"I just want him brought home. I need closure," said Chitwere, "I want to give my son a dignified burial. I am deeply pained."
Just a month before Tanaka left with his cousin Dylan, Zimbabwe said that 15 of its nationals have been killed on “foreign battlefields” and that 60 remain trapped on the frontlines.
Following Tanaka’s death, Dylan’s mother pleaded with him to come back saying:
"Dylan, if you ever hear this message, please come back home. You cannot be fighting a war that is not ours," said his mother, with his family believing at first that he was going to work as a car import agent in Tanzania – only later when Dylan got to Russia did he notify his family of his whereabouts.
The Zimbabwean foreign ministry has lodged a repatriation request for Tanaka’s with its embassy in Russia, in addition to putting five recruitment agents on Russia’s behalf on trial for human trafficking.
More than 1,400 Africans were recruited by Moscow between January 2023 and September 2025 and more than 300 had died, according to the All Eyes on Wagner collective in mid-February.
