Family Of African Mercenary Killed Fighting For Russia Can't Recover His Remains

Like many Africans seeking better fortunes abroad, Derrick Ngamana set his sights on university studies in Russia. But strapped for cash, he instead enlisted in Russia's all-out war against Ukraine this past fall.

Within months of the decision, his brother Diogene received a text in Russian: "Hello, Derrick is dead."

"I didn't believe Derick had fallen in battle, and I was broken…not just me, but the family," Diogene told RFE/RL from the capital of Central African Republic (CAR), adding that his brother, who was 32, had two children.

Ngamana was among the thousands of foreign fighters Russia has deployed against Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in February 2022 -- including North Korean soldiers Kyiv says are providing "useful" intelligence after their capture.

With Russia's military losses in Ukraine numbering in the hundreds of thousands, Moscow has also bolstered its forces with fighters from Africa, where the notorious Russian state-backed mercenary group Wagner has helped bolster the Kremlin's influence on the continent.