{"id":30987,"date":"2026-04-07T12:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30987"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:50:51","slug":"russia-confirms-deaths-of-16-cameroonians-fighting-in-ukraine-war","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/russia-confirms-deaths-of-16-cameroonians-fighting-in-ukraine-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia confirms deaths of 16 Cameroonians fighting in Ukraine war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Cameroon said Russian authorities have confirmed the deaths of 16 Cameroonians fighting against Ukraine, the first time \u200bthe Central African country has spoken about the involvement \u200cof its nationals in the ongoing war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">In a statement broadcast on state media on Monday evening, the foreign ministry called on the families \u200bof the dead to contact Ministry officials in \u200bthe capital city of Yaounde.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Russian authorities have \u200bdenied illegally recruiting \u200bAfrican citizens \u2060to fight in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian embassy in Yaounde did \u200cnot \u2060immediately respond to a <em>Reuters <\/em>request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine said in February that more than 1 700 Africans were fighting for Russia, though the analysts say the true figure is likely higher.<br \/>\nIn an internal memo issued in March 2025 and seen by <em>Reuters,<\/em> Cameroon&#8217;s \u200bDefence Minister expressed concern that soldiers were \u200bleaving the \u2060country to join the war in Ukraine and instructed commanding officers to closely monitor their units.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16002,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30987","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Russian authorities have confirmed the deaths of 16 Cameroonians fighting against Ukraine","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30988,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30987\/revisions\/30988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}