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Late last year, the world was alerted to the disturbing news that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound 1,000 km east of Moscow, called the Alabuga Special Economic Zone. The reports also stated that the recruits—from at least fifteen African countries—were promised good salaries and skills training, but once there, they were often trapped, facing tax deductions, dangerous working conditions, strict surveillance, and difficulties returning home.
In the past six months, a team from ZAM and NAIRE in seven African countries investigated the Russian recruitment exercise, asking why so many young Africans take the chance to go, sometimes even after being warned.
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A “hundred more this year”
Among the shocking findings of this transnational investigation, launched today, is the involvement of high-ranking government officials in six of the seven countries—and the tacit approval in all seven—in sending their countries’ young women abroad. In Cameroon, a ruling party VIP and member of the Cameroon-Russia Business Council has actively taken 13 recruits to Alabuga and reportedly plans to supply Russia with “a hundred more this year.” A Kenyan and a Nigerian ambassador have been promoting the initiative on-site in Moscow and at Alabuga itself. In Rwanda, “orders from above” have allowed female students to travel to Russia “for vague purposes.”
The Ugandan embassy and a parliamentarian have actively accompanied a contingent of recruits, making them among the first to arrive at Alabuga. The Nigerian Ministry of Education advertises the scholarship opportunity on its official website. Meanwhile, the Malawi Foreign and Labour Ministries, while stressing that there is no formal “labour export agreement” with Russia, allow recruitment through “unofficial means,” and Zambia, despite repeated inquiries, maintains a staunch silence regarding the fate of its youth.
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A set of interviews with parents of recruits, additionally done for ZAM in Zimbabwe in cooperation with Deutsche Welle, confirmed that government officials there had also pushed recruitment for Alabuga. The news site Bloomberg reported similar recruitment by politically connected individuals in South Africa (see box).
Pictures on the website of Alabuga itself furthermore showed recruitment actions, including visits to Alabuga, by the Minister of Social Affairs in the DRC, as well as by ambassadors of Somalia, Angola, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Mali.
Prickly yoghurt
On 10 October 2024, the Associated Press rocked the public sphere in many African and Western countries by publishing a report that said young African women were working in a drone plant within the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, east of Moscow. It added that these recruits were assembling Iranian Shahed-136 attack drones to be used in Russia’s war in Ukraine and that they used chemicals to paint the drones.
According to the report, one worker told AP they were coating the drones with a caustic “substance with the consistency of yoghurt,” and that the chemicals “made her face feel like it was being pricked with tiny needles,” with “small holes” appearing on her cheeks, which itched. “My God, I could scratch myself! I could never get tired of scratching myself,” AP quoted her as saying. A video shared with AP showed another woman wearing an Alabuga uniform with her face similarly affected.
“The company is all about making drones. I regret and curse the day I started making all those things,” the interviewed woman was quoted as saying. AP added that, according to experts, about 90 per cent of the foreign women recruited via the Alabuga Start programme work on making drones, particularly the parts “that don’t require much skill.”
Tightly controlled
The experts quoted by AP are connected to the Washington, US-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). In a separate report, ISIS revealed that “in some leaked (Alabuga) documents from 2023, [some workers] were called ‘mulattoes’ (…) and that ‘the modules where they worked were labelled with an additional “M,” or “MM,” for “mulatto module,” which were “the most technologically simple portions of airframe production.’” They also said the same Alabuga documents showed that “the participants of this program had fewer opportunities to advance from their assigned module.” In line with ZAM findings, both AP and ISIS found that women at the compound were monitored and that entry to facilities was strictly controlled.
More recently, ISIS has reported that “high-resolution satellite imagery of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in mid-July 2025 reveals a vast expansion comprising hundreds of new residential buildings and a dozen new production facilities, including workshops, warehouses, and office buildings. (…) The hundreds of new residential buildings, when finished, could hold roughly 41,000 workers.”
Slick PR
A major tool for recruitment is a barrage of slick propaganda on Telegram, Facebook, and other social media channels, ranging from purported testimonials by enthusiastic participants, sometimes in school uniforms (there are no accounts of girls actually attending school in Alabuga), to orchestrated talks and interviews on YouTube. Positive “testimonials” have also been distributed through widely read news media in African countries, some of which have published them uncritically. A warning posted by a prospective recruit, who had shared international reports about drone manufacturing at Alabuga on the dedicated registration Telegram channel in Nigeria, was immediately removed.
“Sergeant Maya”
Perusing the Alabuga account on X, @sezalabuga, the ZAM team came across a tutorial—in the often-used form of a comic strip—which portrayed an unhappy African-looking girl who kept to herself and was only interested, as the thought bubble above her head said, in “sending money home.” Further in the story, she was admonished by a “Sergeant Maya,” who was in uniform and also black. “Sergeant Maya” gently coaxed the stubborn girl to embrace her new home, new family, and new friends.
We saved the Tweet, since “Sergeant Maya” was evidence that, despite Russia’s denials, Alabuga was a military-style environment. Secondly, the content pointed to a broader demographic goal we had also seen elsewhere: Russia appeared to be interested in attracting young women generally, and for more than just a two-year work arrangement. We discussed the findings at a team meeting.
And then the tweet disappeared. Under the URL, there was now only a message from X saying that “the page does not exist.” The Alabuga X account, instead, showed an altered comic strip, with the same girl as in the previous version, but this time she was only moody, no longer thinking about sending money home. In the new story, “Sergeant Maya” had been replaced by ‘HR’ (human resources) Maya, who was white and in civilian dress. The ending was the same: the girl shaped up and became great friends with her new Russian-based family.
Remarkably, the features that changed in the comic were the exact points previously highlighted by our editorial team in internal discussions.
Chillingly, the African governments in this story project generally appeared to actively support what has been called the “farming out” of their youth to jobs abroad, no matter how dodgy, and not only to Russia. The ZAM team notes that in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda (and elsewhere in Africa), job agencies, often with government approval or with the active involvement of officials, have recruited young women into abusive domestic worker jobs in Gulf States, or youth generally into agricultural labour and security jobs in Israel.
Illustrating the attitude, Malawi Finance Minister Simplex Banda reported in February last year that the “labour export” to Israel from his country had already “generated $735,000”. Less than a year later, his colleague, then Labour Minister, Vitumbiko Mumba, would admonish Malawian workers in Israel—who had complained about harsh conditions and abuse—for not fulfilling their job requirements, saying, inter alia, that they had “abandoned posts, engaged in unauthorised vending and seeking asylum as gays,” and that this was causing Malawi to be “less marketable to the Israeli government.”
Save for Botswana, where the Interpol office was recently reported as stating it was looking into Alabuga recruitment in the country, and South Africa, which promised to look into the matter, none of the governments in this investigation have publicly expressed concern about young citizens now living at a drone manufacturing site; not even after the compound was targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks on 2 April 2024 and again in April and May 2025. None of the governments in the seven countries responded to letters asking to facilitate contact with the recruits or whether they were concerned for their safety.
Trafficking station
While driving away their own youth, some of the governments in this investigation have also engaged in deals with the West to accommodate unwanted migrants from elsewhere, even Palestinians chased from Gaza. Ugandan sources told the team that the country is turning into a trafficking station, sending its own young adults abroad while offering itself to the US as a ‘dumping ground’ for unwanted humans from there.
South Africa
Late in August, a Bloomberg investigation in South Africa revealed that the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance in that country—which says it operates under the mandate of the national Women’s Ministry—had signed an agreement to supply Russia with 5,600 workers next year, including to Alabuga. In a comment, the Women’s Ministry denied being “formally linked” to the recruiting organisation but said it “was aware” of it. The BRICS Student Alliance in the same country has also advertised Alabuga jobs, together with some high-profile influencers. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said it was investigating but added that the “South African government is yet to find credible evidence that job offers in Russia are inconsistent with their stated purpose.”
The 947 radio channel reported that it had phoned office numbers in Alabuga for clarity, but not one of several calls was answered.
Boys go for US$1000
The team also found that there was—at least for young male Alabuga recruits, three of whom were interviewed—an overlap between the Alabuga project and the frontlines of the war in Ukraine. Two young men from Burundi, who had initially been put to work in the drone factory, found themselves coerced and obliged to go to war. A Ugandan politician who acted as a recruiter said that “boys,” wherever they were in Russia, were at great risk of being recruited into the war because “the posters are everywhere,” and that was why Uganda preferred “that they take the girls.”
African students in other parts of Russia reported having received offers to find compatriots to enlist in the Russian army, with one sending a screenshot showing “US$1000 per Malawian.” Military recruits from a wide range of African countries have been identified in online reports and photographs wearing Russian uniforms.
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Women were encouraged to establish relationships
Regarding the young women —which perhaps explains the mysterious age limit of 22—the team was able to confirm reports, including from Alabuga PR itself, that girls were encouraged to establish “love” relationships with fellow workers at Alabuga and in Russia generally. One Alabuga recruit from Burundi told the team that “several girls got pregnant” during his time working there.
Savings under “sanctions”
The ZAM team interviewed one recruit who is presently residing in a dorm room at Alabuga. She said that the site was “very large, with many industries” and that her colleagues worked there in various jobs, not only on drones. However, she also said that the workers were subject to heavy security, were not allowed to wander freely, and had ID cards that restricted them to limited areas. There was a very “strict workplace culture” that many were “unable to cope” with. “A lot of them have gone back,” she said, adding that she herself wanted to return after fulfilling her two-year term but was concerned she might not be able to bring back her savings “because of sanctions.”
In a series of seven stories, ZAM and the ZAIRE team portray the Alabuga schemes’ manifestations in the Great Lakes region (focusing on Burundi and Rwanda), Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, and Cameroon.
