00:01Beatrice Changong is in mourning.
00:03Her son, Brice Yundo, left Cameroon in December and went to Russia,
00:07where he volunteered to join the army.
00:10In February, the family received a letter from the army
00:13to say he had gone missing in Russia's Kursk region.
00:17His mother believes he was killed.
00:20He went looking for a better life, a better future.
00:24He didn't have a stable job here.
00:27He worked as a subcontractor or a day laborer at the cement factory.
00:33He did whatever work he could find.
00:36He was happy to leave the country to find a job.
00:39He just wanted to make something of his life.
00:42But instead, he went there to die.
00:48All that she has from his time in Russia
00:50are the few photos and videos Brice sent via WhatsApp.
00:55A 34-year-old had no prior military experience.
00:59His mother thinks he didn't fully know what he was signing up for.
01:04They forced him into signing the contract in Russian.
01:07Does he know how to read the Russian language?
01:10He knows how to read French and English, not Russian.
01:14They sent him off to fight in the war.
01:16He was only trained for four days.
01:18What can he possibly learn in four days?
01:23It's not clear what happened to Brice in the months after he enlisted.
01:27But reports suggest he was part of a growing number of foreign mercenaries fighting for Russia.
01:32A lack of work and opportunities in Cameroon means that young people are especially vulnerable to the lure of money and a better life in Russia.
01:45Agents use social media or word of mouth to recruit new soldiers for the Crimean so-called special military operations against Ukraine.
01:53There are no official statistics on the number of Cameroonians fighting for the Russians.
01:58However, according to one Cameroonian whistleblower, around a hundred fighters have died since last year.
02:05This figure includes trained soldiers.
02:10In March, Cameroon's defense minister warned that Cameroonian security forces were deserting their posts to fight in Russia.
02:18Russia offers these soldiers a minimum of two and a half thousand euros.
02:25That's more than ten times their salary in Cameroon.
02:28Seen in a context of army experience, where Cameroonian soldiers have acquired skills in various operations in recent years,
02:37they tried to sell those skills to the highest bidder.
02:41And it turns out that the highest bidder at the moment is Russia.
02:47Brice Yundu might have paid with his life for that salary.
02:51Brice Yundu says Russia has still not provided any money, help or word on what happened to her son.
03:01Without him, she now faces having to raise his children by herself.
03:06Brice Yundu says Russia has still no longer a 45 year old troops.
03:07Brice Yundu says Russia has still been taken into account of the
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