Two Cameroonians, Onana Jean Parfait Mitugina and Anatole Frank Mbala, have been held in Ukrainian detention since May 2025, the foreign ministry has not named them in any public statement.
The two men were captured in May 2025 after being recruited between 2024 and 2025, often on promises of work or training in Russia, and sent to the front with between one week and three months of preparation, the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) said in a study published on 27 October 2026. The study by researcher Thierry Vircoulon rests on interviews with 14 African prisoners of war.
Yaounde acknowledged on 6 April 2026 that 16 Cameroonians serving as contract soldiers in the Russian army had been killed. The INPACT coalition says more than 100 Cameroonians have died in Ukraine, the highest toll of any African country, a figure that does not cover the wounded or the missing.
The foreign ministry says its exchanges take place "within the framework of relations between states, and not via the media". South Africa secured the return of 15 citizens in late February 2026 after a direct call between President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Vladimir Putin, and Kenya sent its foreign minister to Moscow in March 2026 and charged two people with human trafficking.
The detentions leave the two men without a public claim on them from Yaounde.