Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Countering Russia’s Forced Recruitment and Kidnapping in Africa Act”.
Countering Russia’s Forced Recruitment and Kidnapping in Africa Act
A BILL
To impose sanctions on foreign persons and foreign governments participating in or facilitating the recruitment of foreign nationals from African countries for the purpose of fighting in the war in Ukraine.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Russian-backed entities are working to recruit civilian and military personnel across the African continent to participate in Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Government has reported that more than 1,400 citizens from 36 countries across Africa are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
Africans sent to the conflict are often forced to take the most dangerous combat roles in the most dangerous areas of the conflict because Russians believe their lives are less valuable. Videos from the conflict show African recruits with landmines strapped to their chest and ordered by Russian soldiers to fight or die. Africans are regularly referred to as “expendable” and “cannon fodder” by Russians in the conflict areas.
The daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, has been accused in multiple lawsuits of luring 17 South Africans and two Botswanan men to Russia by telling them they would be training as bodyguards for her father’s political party or attending a personal development course.
Accounts of recruitment in South Africa highlight that victims are regularly misled under false pretenses. When they arrive in Russia, their clothes and passports are often burned, and their phones are taken away. If a contract was presented upon recruitment, it is often switched for one written in Russian with the express intent of exploiting the victim for their service or labor.
Other cases reveal that victims believed they were travelling to Moscow for advanced military training but were instead sent to fight on the front lines in Ukraine.
A group of more than twenty Kenyan men were rescued from a suspected human trafficking ring in September 2025 following a raid on a residential complex in Nairobi. The men had reportedly been promised jobs in Russia but were set to be sent to fight in Ukraine.
Evan Kibet, a Kenyan long-distance runner, reports a sports agent offered to fly him and three other Kenyans to St. Petersburg for races. There, he was told to sign work papers in Russian, and told if he did not sign, he would be killed. He was then sent to a military camp.
Kenya’s foreign ministry has described “ruthless” Kremlin-linked recruiters tricking young men to join the war with false job promises. According to the Kenyan Foreign Minister, agents masquerade as working with the Russian government and use unscrupulous methods including falsified information to lure innocent Kenyans into the battlefield.
In September 2025, Kenyan authorities arrested a Russian Embassy employee in Nairobi and a Kenyan accomplice, accused of recruiting local men as mercenaries to fight for Russia.
In addition, using local networks of recruiters, Russia has also directly recruited numerous Cameroonian soldiers, with estimates that 65 Cameroonians had been killed in the war.
According to Ukrainian media, Ukrainian forces captured two Cameroonian nationals that claimed they had come to Russia to work—one “to make shampoo” and the other “to fix teeth”—before they were instead sent to fight for Russia.
African women have been lured to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia through a recruitment scheme targeting 18-to-22-year-old women promising participants professional training in logistics, catering, and hospitality. Instead, these women are subject to hazardous factory condition and used to build drones. By some estimates more than 1,000 women have been recruited from across Africa to work in Alabuga’s weapons factories.
Sec. 3 Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that—
Russia’s illegal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine has strained the Russian military, generating a need for additional personnel to supplement the ranks of Russia’s armed forces and leading to the deceptive and coerced recruitment of Africans;
abduction and forced recruitment of African nationals to support the Russian war machine in Ukraine likely constitutes human rights violations; and
it is unacceptable that some African government officials have knowingly participated in or benefited from these recruitment operations at the expense of their citizens.
Sec. 4 List
In general— Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall create a list of foreign persons and foreign governments participating in or facilitating the recruitment of nationals from African countries for the purpose of—
knowingly or unknowingly joining the Russian military for the purposes of fighting in Ukraine;
knowingly or unknowingly joining Russia-aligned organizations for the purposes of fighting in Ukraine; or
accepting employment under false pretenses or as volunteer work that supports the Russian war effort against Ukraine.
Protection of victims— Individuals who are determined to be victims of fraud, coercion, or deception in connection with the activities described in subsection (a) shall not be included on the list established under that subsection.
Sec. 5 Sanctions required
In general— Not later than 30 days after the list required by section 4 is created by the Secretary of State the President may impose the sanctions described in paragraphs (1) through (7) of subsection (b) on each foreign person and foreign government identified on the list.
Sanctions described— The sanctions described in this subsection are the following:
Blocking of property— The President shall pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property of the foreign person if such property and interests in property are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
Export-Import Bank assistance for exports to sanctioned persons— The President shall direct the Export-Import Bank of the United States not to give approval to the issuance of any guarantee, insurance, extension of credit, or participation in the extension of credit in connection with the export of any goods or services to the foreign person or foreign government.
Loans from United States financial institutions— The President shall prohibit any United States financial institution from making loans or providing credits to the foreign person or foreign government totaling more than $10,000,000 in any 12-month period unless the person is primarily engaged in activities to relieve human suffering and the loans or credits are provided for such activities.
Loans from international financial institutions— The President shall direct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose any loan from the international financial institution that would benefit the foreign person or foreign government.
Loans from the International Development Finance Corporation; the United States Trade and Development Agency and Millennium Challenge Corporation— The President shall direct the Chief Executive Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency to prohibit any loan, loan guarantee, equity investment, project assistance, or any other type of support to a listed foreign person or foreign government.
Procurement sanction— The United States Government may not procure, or enter into any contract for the procurement of, any goods or services from the foreign person or foreign government.
Exclusion of foreign individuals—
In general— The President shall direct the Secretary of State to deny a visa to, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to exclude from the United States, any individual identified in the report required by subsection (a).
Visas, admission, or parole— An alien who the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland Security (or a designee of one of such Secretaries) knows, or has reason to believe, is described in subparagraph (A) is—
inadmissible to the United States;
ineligible for a visa or other documentation to enter the United States; and
otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into the United States or to receive any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
Current visas revoked—
In general— The issuing consular officer, the Secretary of State, or the Secretary of Homeland Security (or a designee of one of such Secretaries) shall, in accordance with section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i)), revoke any visa or other entry documentation issued to an alien described in subparagraph (A) regardless of when the visa or other entry documentation is issued.
Effect of revocation— A revocation under clause (i)—
shall take effect immediately; and
shall automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry documentation that is in the alien’s possession.
Exceptions—
Exception to comply with international obligations— Sanctions under subsection (b)(7) shall not apply with respect to the admission of an alien if admitting or paroling the alien into the United States is necessary to permit the United States to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the United States, or other applicable international obligations.
Exception relating to the provision of humanitarian assistance— Sanctions under this section may not be imposed with respect to transactions or the facilitation of transactions for—
the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical devices;
the provision of humanitarian assistance;
financial transactions relating to humanitarian assistance; or
transporting goods or services that are necessary to carry out operations relating to humanitarian assistance.
Exception for intelligence, law enforcement, and national security activities— Sanctions under this section shall not apply to any authorized intelligence, law enforcement, or national security activities of the United States.
Classified information— In any judicial review of a determination made under this section, if the determination was based on classified information (as defined in section 1(a) of the Classified Information Procedures Act) such information may be submitted to the reviewing court ex parte and in camera. This paragraph does not confer or imply any right to judicial review.
National interest waiver— The President may waive the imposition of sanctions under subsection (b) with respect to a person if the President—
determines that such a waiver is vital to the national interests of the United States; and
not more than 15 days after issuing the waiver, submits to the appropriate congressional committees a notification of the waiver and the reasons for the waiver.
Sec. 6 Termination of sanctions
The President may terminate the application of sanctions under this Act with respect to a person if the President determines and reports to the appropriate congressional committees not later than 15 days before the termination of the sanctions that—
credible information exists that the person did not engage in the activity for which sanctions were imposed;
the person has credibly demonstrated a significant change in behavior, has paid an appropriate consequence for the activity for which sanctions were imposed, and has credibly committed to not engage in an activity described in paragraph (1) in the future; or
the termination of the sanctions is in the vital national interests of the United States.
Sec. 7 Defined term
Sec. 8 Sunset
Any sanctions imposed pursuant to this Act shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.