Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. When her 19-year-old daughter boarded a flight to Russia last year, Ulita Semende of Harare believed she was watching her child soar toward a brighter future.
Now, she fears she sent her into captivity.
“We hardly speak these days,” Semende said, her voice breaking. “The last time she called on WhatsApp—back in May—she sounded rushed, afraid. I am beginning to believe the stories about the girls manufacturing drones because she is so secretive. She will not tell me about her job, or her studies.”
Semende’s daughter is one of a growing number of young Zimbabwean women believed to have been recruited by Russia’s “Alabuga Start” initiative. Advertised as a training and entrepreneurship programme, it has been linked to drone production for the war in Ukraine at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, over 1,000 kilometres east of Moscow.
What began as a promise of opportunity has curdled into a transnational nightmare, ensnaring hundreds of young women from across Africa, including South Africa, Uganda, and Nigeria. Recruited through social media influencers, student groups, and sometimes even government-linked figures, they are now at the centre of a growing scandal.
While South Africa and Uganda have launched official investigations and suspended their participation, the Zimbabwean government’s response has been marked by silence, leaving families in agonising limbo.
At a post-cabinet briefing on Tuesday, Information Minister Jenfan Muswere said the government had not yet discussed the issue. “Unfortunately what you asked wasn’t discussed in today’s briefing,” he stated. “We will take it into consideration in our next meeting.”
Deputy Information Minister Omphile Marupi echoed this, telling NewsDay, “We have not heard any reports from the embassy on the exploitation of women… but investigations are ongoing.”
For families like Sositina Mukatwa’s, that official silence is unbearable. “I am living in fear because the government is mum,” said the 43-year-old from Chivhu. Her daughter left in 2023, mentioning only a scholarship. Since then, communication has been sporadic and strained.
“She has only called thrice to say she is fine, but I could sense she was not free to talk,” Mukatwa explained. “The last time, she sounded drunk and hinted she had been laid off. Later, she sent US$200 and insisted she was ‘back at work,’ but refused to say what she was doing.”
In a Harare suburb, 55-year-old Ruzvidzo Masambaasiyana carries a similar burden of guilt. He secured the opportunity for his daughter through a friend in government. “When she left, I felt my connection to those in higher offices had finally paid off,” he recalls.
That confidence has since shattered. “I was not worried until I saw the news—that they are manufacturing drones used in the war. I tried to talk to her about it in April, but she brushed me aside. I feel like I sold my daughter into slavery.”
A Crisis Forged in Poverty
Prominent human rights advocate Effie Ncube argues the crisis is rooted in Africa’s pervasive poverty and inequality. “It’s not surprising that we are seeing people being dragged into the Ukraine-Russian conflict,” he said. “It’s something that should concern every government in the African continent and beyond.”
He stressed that Zimbabwe must work with its regional partners on a coordinated response. “That means mobilising within the SADC region and mobilising within the African Union because we are interconnected.”
Bulawayo-based gender activist Thando Gwiji says desperation has made Zimbabwe’s youth easy prey. “Until poverty is fixed, young people will volunteer to be enslaved and fed rather than be free and hungry,” she stated. “Moreover, women’s rights remain severely underfunded, which makes young women easy targets for trafficking schemes disguised as opportunities.”
Academic Mehluli Nyathi warns the issue goes beyond simple deception. “This is not soft diplomacy; it’s economic coercion. African governments are being drawn into military-industrial arrangements under the guise of student training.”
A Call for Action
Linda Masarira, president of the LEAD party, has called for concrete steps: tightening exit controls for minors, licensing overseas recruiters, and compelling social media platforms to remove deceptive ads.
“Finally, we must align enforcement with our Trafficking in Persons law and work with the AU and SADC to mount a joint task force because this problem is regional in scale,” Masarira said. “Anything less signals impunity to those profiting from our daughters’ vulnerability.”
For now, families are left with only echoes. The voices of their daughters, once familiar and close, now sound distant, hurried, and haunted by an unseen war.
“I don’t know where to turn,” Ulita Semende says quietly, her hope fading with each passing day. “I just want my daughter home.”
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