Cameroon's Foreign Ministry has urged relatives of the dead to contact officials in the capital, Yaoundé, after publishing the names of the 16 on state media. A ministry statement described the deceased as “military contractors of Cameroonian nationality” deployed in the “special military operation zone,” Russia’s term for its war in Ukraine, marking the first public acknowledgment by Cameroon of its citizens’ involvement in the conflict. Moscow has recruited foreign nationals from a range of countries to reinforce its forces, but Cameroonian authorities did not say how the 16 arrived in Russia, under what arrangements they were contracted, or where and when they were killed.
