The Cameroonians Dying in Russia’s War: The Story of Dongmo Brice

By Hans Ngala

It is October 2024, and a 35-year-old Dongmo Kemto Boris Brice is walking out of the Russian embassy in Yaounde with a smile on his face because he just got his study visa for Russia. At 35, Brice had been working for some time with Orange Cameroon, a leading telecommunications company, as a sales agent, a nerve-wracking job that meant lots of moving in town, trying to get clients to buy Orange products and services. But going to Russia meant that he could finally turn his life around academically – and financially.
“He had to borrow the money for his flight from friends and some family,” Brice’s junior sister Nancy tells us.
“The visa that they issued to him said ‘Study Visa’ so he knew that he was going for studies,” Nancy said “But when he got to Russia another Cameroonian friend who was already there told him that it is a good opportunity to work as a security guard and make some extra income” his sister told CNA. But this was never the case.
Nancy says that when Brice signed up for the new job, communication via telephone with his family back in Cameroon became less and less frequent. “At times, he would come back and message us for a day or two, and then we’d only hear from him a month later again. Then, around April, the family stopped hearing from him, only to later receive a call from his Cameroonian friend that Brice had been killed.
“We are at a loss for words,” Nancy says, “Because we knew that he was going for studies and now he ended up dead,” she says with profound agony.
“We have not received any word from the Russian embassy, we have not seen any photos of him, and we have no idea where his body is,” Nancy says.
Brice’s two daughters, ages 5 and 4, are now being raised by his six other siblings and Brice’s mother.
But his death is a big blow to the entire family. “He was the firstborn and the one who was helping to support our family,” Nancy says. “I took German lessons paid for by him, and my dream to travel to Germany has now been dashed to pieces with his absence,” she adds.
Nancy says she is unsure how her brother learned of the study opportunity, but she believes that another friend in Cameroon told Brice about it. He then resigned his job, borrowed money from friends and family and added to what little savings he had and left for Russia.
While an official at the Russian embassy in Yaounde did not respond to requests for comment, reports suggest that Russia’s Alabuga (Special Economic Zone) SEZ program, which is presented to African students as an educational program, could be one of the ways the Russian army recruits.
Statistics on the exact number of Cameroonians in Russia or who have returned from there are hard to come by. However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office for Cameroon states that “Through its assisted voluntary return program, IOM has supported nearly 10,000 Cameroonian migrants in distress over the past four years, almost 20% of whom were women”. IOM also provides psychosocial care for these returnees who are mentally traumatized by their migrant experiences in Europe and Russia.
At press time, CNA had reached out to *Beatrice, another Cameroonian girl who was getting ready to travel to Russia under the Alabuga program. However, Beatrice didn’t reveal much – a fear which could be likened to the fact that she may be aware of the fact that even though she’s going to Russia on a study visa, she may end up on the front lines in the war with Ukraine or in a drone manufacturing plant.
According to Raoul Suma Tayo, a Cameroonian researcher who works on migration issues and writes for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS): “We have at least three trends of Cameroonians going to Russia to fight in the Russia-Ukraine War. The first trend is Cameroonian soldiers who defect to go and fight in Ukraine. The second trend is Cameroonians – especially women leaving to join an educational program but they end up working in drone factories in Russia and the third trend is Cameroonians who were already living in Russia and run into administrative problems due to their immigration status, they have the choice to either go back to Cameroon or stay in Russia on the condition that they join the army. Lastly, we have people (civilians) who left Cameroon knowing exactly what they were going there to do”.
Tayo says that “You can’t understand what is going on without considering the general context of migration in Cameroon. You have young women who leave Cameroon to go to Lebanon to earn a monthly salary of 150 Euros (100,000 CFA). They know that they are likely to be abused, but since they don’t have any other opportunities in Cameroon, they prefer to go. These people know that they have a high chance of dying, but they prefer to go and try. Some even say that to them, they are already dead in Cameroon, and they have no problem with going to die elsewhere…They see it as an opportunity to earn money, coupled with family pressure in Cameroon, which pushes some of these people into this, so it is not entirely on Russian propaganda”.
In an article Tayo wrote for the ISS, he says economics plays a role more than Russian propaganda does. While he admits that propaganda is there, the excruciating poverty is the main reason – not Russian propaganda – why Cameroonians (especially trained soldiers) desert their posts in Cameroon to join the Russian army. “Using local networks of recruiters, Russia has attracted numerous Cameroonian soldiers. Some, interviewed by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), reported monthly salaries of XAF 1.2 million (US$1,976) to XAF 1.5 million (US$2,479), with specialists receiving at least XAF 2 million (US$3,294)”.
The economics part is also confirmed by Dongmo Brice’s family, as his sister told CNA that he was made to understand that he was just going to be a security guard. “His friend told him he would work as a guard, and since he was the one paying his fees, he felt this was a good opportunity to make some extra income to support himself and the family,” his sister Nancy says.
The family doesn’t believe he was forced by the Russians or anyone to join the army, but that he was likely attracted by the better pay in the Russian army.
However, Tayo says, though the pay is high and lures these Cameroonian women and men, like Brice, to join the Russian army,“There are many risks. Those drone factories are sometimes targeted by Ukraine, so there is the risk of getting killed. There is also the risk of being exploited,a nd this is not specific to Russia alone – anytime a young girl leaves her country to go abroad without any social ties, she’s likely to be abused”.
So while U.S. President Donald Trump sought to end the conflict, he met with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, August 18—after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, August 15—Africans like Brice and many African women continue to pay for the war with their lives.
Brice’s two girls, aged just 4 and 5, will now have to be raised by his mother and siblings as Brice’s father had died four years ago, leaving Brice as the family’s breadwinner. Brice’s death in the war with Ukraine has shattered the hopes of many in his family, as they all relied on the monthly support he was sending. Nancy now has to abandon her dream of studying in Germany as the costs are too high for the family in the absence of her brother.
She says that her family just wants to know if her brother’s corpse is somewhere in Russia and that the Russian authorities should kindly hand over his corpse so the family can bury and have closure.
Nancy said her only caution to those wishing to travel to Russia from Cameroon, especially young girls, is: “If you’re going to Russia for studies, go for studies. Focus just on that because you will be tempted to join the army because there’s a lot of money in the Russian army. So if you go to Russia for studies, just study”.

*Nancy is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the source, given the sensitive nature of this report.
*Beatrice is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the source