Zürcher Nachrichten - 'Help me!': family's anguish over Equatorial Guinean lured into Ukraine war

Daniel Angel Masie Nchama is among nearly 1,800 Africans fighting in the Kremlin's war on Ukraine; some signed up voluntarily in the hope of high pay, others say they were tricked or coerced.

"Come and help me! I'm on the front line in Ukraine, I'm fighting for Russia," he begged Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in an anguished voice message sent to his parents.

The recording has spread widely on social media and caused a strong reaction in oil-rich but poverty-stricken Equatorial Guinea, ruled by Obiang for over 40 years.

Masie Nchama, a computer science student who dreamed of moving abroad, left the central African nation for military training but found himself forcibly enrolled in the Russian army and headed for war.

Panicked at the prospect of being sent to the front, he contacted his family late in March and appealed to the authorities for help.

"We need to find a plan to get me out of here quickly, because if they send me to the front line, it's going to be really hard. Once I'm there, there'll be no going back unless the war ends," Masie Nchama says in the recording.

His father said his son was contacted by a Cameroonian living in Russia, who sold him on the idea of a military training course and the promise of a job as a bodyguard.

Now he is at a Russian military base in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, after leaving Equatorial Guinea in December for Cameroon, where he got a Russian visa the following month -- a copy of which AFP has seen.

He was in Russia for just 45 days before being sent to the war zone.

"We were promised that after 10 months of military training, we would be given a job, but to our great surprise, we were sent to the front. I don't know if I'll come back," he says.

- Diplomatic efforts -

Following a TV report that also gained broad attention on social media, the Equatorial Guinean government confirmed in a statement the existence of a suspected recruitment network run by a Cameroonian national known by the pseudonym "Fabrice".

He apparently tricks young people by dangling the prospect of military training in Eastern Europe, then sends them to fight in Ukraine.

The government called for international actors to take steps to dismantle and prosecute the network.

In a meeting with the Russian ambassador on March 31, the Equatorial Guinean vice president asked for Moscow's help to return Masie Nchama.

The envoy said Russia was committed to helping him and proposed cooperation with Equatorial Guinea to prevent such cases in the future, a statement by the African government said.

As the war triggered by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine has dragged on, Moscow has taken soldiers from allies such as North Korea, which is thought to have sent thousands of troops.

Moscow has also pushed a recruitment drive across the African continent, signing up fighters from Egypt to South Africa and from Ghana to Zimbabwe.

Ukraine estimates that more than 1,780 Africans from 36 countries are fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine.

- Sent to the front -

In February, the All Eyes On Wagner (AEOW) organisation, which investigates Russian hybrid warfare, published the names of 1,417 Africans recruited by Moscow between January 2023 and September 2025 for the war.

More than 300 of them have died in Ukraine.

Moscow agreed recently to stop recruiting Kenyans after a network sent more than 1,000 fighters from the east African country to join Russian forces in Ukraine.

According to his father, Masie Nchama left with 36 young French-speaking Africans and another from Equatorial Guinea.

After training in Murmansk in northern Russia, the recruits were separated.

"My son went to Donetsk while his compatriot was sent elsewhere in the Donbas," he told AFP.

In a voice message which AFP has heard, he explained that he was forced to sign documents in Russian without understanding what they said.

His father said he has photos, videos and audio recordings proving his presence in the Donetsk region, an area of active fighting.

The family has filed a complaint with the Equatorial Guinean police and demanded urgent action from the authorities.

Despite their fears, his parents still hope to see Masie Nchama again -- a fighter he is said to have relieved at the front has confirmed he is still alive.

M.Hug--NZN