Harare (Zimbabwe) (AFP) – Instead of celebrating her son's birthday this month, Zimbabwean mother Rodwin Chitewere spent the day praying for his body to be brought home from Russia, where he was reportedly killed fighting Moscow's war against Ukraine.
In Botswana and South Africa, too, women are desperate for sons and husbands to return from a conflict many say they were duped into joining, as authorities warn recruiters are still active. Chitewere's son, who would have turned 23, left with a cousin in April from a remote village in eastern Zimbabwe where he had been living with his grandmother. His mother – 350 kilometres away in Beitbridge – only found out when a relative spotted a change on his WhatsApp status. Someone later contacted her from Russia to say that her son, Tanaka Muzirikazi, had been wounded in a drone attack. "We need God's grace to see if he recovers because it was bad," said the voice note shared with AFP. Then in July, the same man messaged that Muzirikazi was dead. "I just want him brought home. I need closure," said his mother, who has appealed for government help. "I want to give my son a dignified burial. I am deeply pained." Zimbabwe's foreign ministry told the family in July it had referred their request for his repatriation to its embassy in Russia. Five suspected recruitment agents are on trial in the country on human trafficking charges. The families searching for African recruits lost in the Ukraine war 'Not our war' The month before Muzirikazi left with his cousin Dylan Goodho, Zimbabwe announced 15 nationals had been killed on "foreign battlefields".
