Kadaga moves to help families of victims trafficked to Russia
Kadaga said she was shocked by their (families’) stories and how their loved ones had been trafficked to the war front in Ukraine.
Kato, whose brother went missing in Ukraine, speaks to journalists at Kadaga’s office. (Photo by Ignatius Kamya.)
______________ Wives of men who were trafficked to Russia present a petition to Rebecca Kadaga. (Photo by Ignatius Kamya)
Uganda's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga, has assured the families of people who were trafficked to Russia to fight against Ukraine of support as they seek to have them repatriated to Uganda, dead or alive.
Speaking to the families at her office in Kampala, Kadaga said she was shocked by their (families’) stories and how their loved ones had been trafficked to the war front in Ukraine.
“I did not know that we had Ugandans who were trafficked to Ukraine. I will raise the matter with the President [Yoweri Museveni] to see if we can repatriate them, dead or alive. Let’s raise the issue and see what the President advises,” she said.
During the meeting, mother-of-three Jennifer Namuli told Kadaga that she last heard from her husband in February and does not know if he is dead or alive.
“He left for Russia in early December, hoping to secure a driving job he had been promised there. When he reached, he told me that he had been conscripted to fight in the army,” a teary Namuli said.
She was together with other people with similar accounts about their relatives.
Namuli she has no source of livelihood and that her family has since been evicted from the house they were renting.
Kenneth Oloka, a lawyer and executive director of Kyeyo Initiative Uganda, a non-government organisation, called on the government to come up with stringent measures against traffickers.
“The traffickers are exploiting loopholes in immigration to traffic Ugandans into forced labour abroad. The Police and immigration department need to step up their effort,” he said.
Since the start of the year 2026, more than 12 African countries have reported a surge in distress calls coming from their citizens who are stuck at the frontline in Ukraine, where they were deceptively trafficked.
On June 29, 2026, the StopRussianRecruiters.org website published the names of 485 African nationals who were killed while fighting with the Russian armed forces.
According to the portal, Ukraine has one Ugandan prisoner of war identified as Richard Akantorana, a 45-year-old man who has been in detention since December 2025. Three Ugandan nationals were reportedly confirmed killed.
Earlier, the foreign affairs ministry had indicated that it was unable to repatriate the victims because it did not know how they left the country.
In recent months, some African countries including Zimbabwe, Kenya and Angola have led the crackdown on recruiters deceptively luring African nationals into the Russian armed forces.
“In two instances, arrestees were Russian nationals: ‘Sofia Leonova’ and ‘Leonid Koftov’ have both been charged with recruitment offences. In all other cases, Zimbabwean nationals are alleged to have collaborated with Russian accomplices to conduct trafficking activity,” The Herald reported.
In Angola, two Russian nationals, Igor Racthin (38) and Lev Lakshtanov (64), were sentenced to 11 years in prison for recruiting and funding Angolan unrest.
In Kenya, foreign affairs minister Musalia Mudavadi travelled to Moscow in March and met Russia’s defence minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, who assured him that no further recruitment would take place.
This was after the National Assembly leader Kimani Ichung'wah told the House that more than 1,000 Kenyans had already been recruited and trafficked to Russia to fight in the conflict.
Hundreds of lives lost
According to StopRussianRecruiters.org, about 2,984 Africans from 40 countries were recruited and of those, nearly one in six is confirmed killed.
The total verified number of Africans killed is 485. The website indicates that the dead are from Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The heaviest losses are among citizens of Cameroon with 110 dead, Ghana (85), Egypt (81) and Kenya (60), the same countries where Russian recruitment has been most intensive.
The scale of deaths tracks directly with the scale of recruitment. Ukraine said the absence of a name does not mean a person is alive.