Zimbabwean mother Rodwin Chitewere did not celebrate her son’s birthday this month. Instead, she spent the day praying — waiting for a body that has not come home.
Her son, Tanaka Muzirikazi, would have turned 23. He left their remote village in eastern Zimbabwe in April, travelling with his cousin to what the family believed was legitimate work abroad. By July, a man messaging from Russia told Chitewere that Tanaka was dead, killed after being wounded in a drone attack.
“I just want him brought home. I need closure,” she said. “I want to give my son a dignified burial. I am deeply pained.”
Her anguish is not singular. Across Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa, mothers and wives are confronting the same devastating reality: their sons and husbands were deceived into joining Russia’s war against Ukraine, and many have not been heard from since.
Zimbabwe Reports Over 60 Nationals Trapped at the Front Lines, With Families Left in the Dark
Zimbabwe’s government announced in March that more than 60 of its nationals remained trapped in active combat zones in Russia and Ukraine. The country had already confirmed 15 deaths on “foreign battlefields” one month before Tanaka Muzirikazi and his cousin Dylan Goodho departed in April.
Muzikazi’s mother, based 350 kilometres away in Beitbridge, only learned her son had left when a relative noticed a change on his WhatsApp status. A voice note later reached her from Russia, describing injuries from a drone strike. “We need God’s grace to see if he recovers because it was bad,” the message said. In July, the same contact confirmed his death.
Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry told the family in July it had referred their repatriation request to its embassy in Moscow. Five suspected recruitment agents are currently on trial in Zimbabwe on human trafficking charges — a legal proceeding that brings little immediate comfort to mothers still waiting for answers.
Recruiters Exploited Economic Desperation, Promising Jobs While Delivering Soldiers to the Front
Dylan Goodho’s family in Zimbabwe believed he was travelling to Tanzania to work as a car import agent. His father, an artisanal miner, borrowed money to cover police clearance certificates, medical examinations, and travel expenses. “It looked like a genuine opportunity,” said Vharance Goodho.
It was only after Dylan arrived in Russia that he revealed he was a soldier. He sent home US$1,500 and said he was shipping back a vehicle. The family last heard from him in May.
The pattern is consistent across the continent. In mid-February, the All Eyes on Wagner collective published the names of more than 1,400 Africans it said Moscow had recruited between January 2023 and September 2025. More than 300 of those individuals had died, the group reported.
Dylan’s mother, Fadzai Chikove, has recorded a message for her son. “Dylan, if you ever hear this message, please come back home,” she said. “You cannot be fighting a war that is not ours.”
South African Returnees Describe Combat Trauma and Inadequate Post-War Support
South Africa confirmed in February that at least two of its citizens had died fighting in Russia, with 15 others repatriated the same month. A Ukrainian government platform monitoring Russian recruitment activity reported last month that 10 South Africans had died in the conflict.
Those who have returned describe experiences that stayed with them long after they left the front. One returnee with no prior military experience told AFP he had “never been so afraid.” “All of a sudden you see and hear bombs, drones flying overhead,” he said.
Another South African in his 20s said he was promised trauma counselling upon return but received only two sessions with a psychologist. “We are left in the lurch, without any money, any means of support, just only the scars from the war,” he said.
One South African woman, speaking anonymously, said her husband lost a leg after a drone struck his convoy. She was still waiting for him to be cleared to travel home.
Botswana Raises Alarm as Families Report Sons Missing for Nearly a Year
The Botswana government declared in July that an “alarming” number of its men were being misled into joining the conflict. For at least one family, that alarm came far too late.
A Botswanan mother — speaking on condition of anonymity — said her 20-year-old son left for Russia in July 2025 with a friend. Nearly a year later, she has received no word on whether he is alive. “I don’t know if they are alive or not,” she said.
She believes the two young men were deceived by Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma, under the pretext of attending a personal development course in Russia. Zuma-Sambudla resigned from parliament in December after South African police confirmed they were investigating claims that she had lured men into the Russian war effort. AFP was unable to reach her for comment.
“I just want my child back home,” the Botswanan mother said. She has been writing to the South African government for help — and she wants more than her son’s return. “We were raised with, ‘It’s an eye for an eye’. So now I want that woman to be tried.”
Grief Transcends Borders as Recruiters Remain Active Despite Ongoing Prosecutions
The recruitment of African men into Russia’s war continues despite government warnings and active legal proceedings. Across Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana, the families left behind share a common profile: they were misled about where their loved ones were going, they received little to no official support, and they are now navigating grief and bureaucracy simultaneously.
Chitewere’s appeal to the Zimbabwean government for her son’s repatriation remains unresolved. Her request — to bring Tanaka home for a proper burial — represents the most basic expectation of a state’s duty to its citizens abroad, one that has yet to be fulfilled.
The All Eyes on Wagner data, the South African repatriation figures, the Botswana government’s own alarm, and the five recruitment agents on trial in Zimbabwe collectively point to a recruitment pipeline that has drawn hundreds of African men — many facing bleak economic conditions at home — into one of the most dangerous active conflicts in the world.
For the mothers at the centre of this story, statistics are beside the point. They want their sons back. — AFP
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