H.R. 8718

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8718 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 8718

To impose sanctions on foreign persons and foreign governments 
participating in or facilitating the recruitment of foreign nationals 
from African countries for the purpose of fighting in the war in 
Ukraine.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 7, 2026

Mr. Wilson of South Carolina (for himself and Mr. Jackson of Illinois) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial 
Services, the Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform, for a 
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To impose sanctions on foreign persons and foreign governments 
participating in or facilitating the recruitment of foreign nationals 
from African countries for the purpose of fighting in the war in 
Ukraine.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Countering Russia's Forced 
Recruitment and Kidnapping in Africa Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) Russian-backed entities are working to recruit civilian 
and military personnel across the African continent to 
participate in Russia's illegal war against Ukraine.
(2) The Ukrainian Government has reported that more than 
1,400 citizens from 36 countries across Africa are fighting 
alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
(3) Africans sent to the conflict are often forced to take 
the most dangerous combat roles in the most dangerous areas of 
the conflict because Russians believe their lives are less 
valuable. Videos from the conflict show African recruits with 
landmines strapped to their chest and ordered by Russian 
soldiers to fight or die. Africans are regularly referred to as 
``expendable'' and ``cannon fodder'' by Russians in the 
conflict areas.
(4) The daughter of former South African president Jacob 
Zuma, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, has been accused in multiple 
lawsuits of luring 17 South Africans and two Botswanan men to 
Russia by telling them they would be training as bodyguards for 
her father's political party or attending a personal 
development course.
(5) Accounts of recruitment in South Africa highlight that 
victims are regularly misled under false pretenses. When they 
arrive in Russia, their clothes and passports are often burned, 
and their phones are taken away. If a contract was presented 
upon recruitment, it is often switched for one written in 
Russian with the express intent of exploiting the victim for 
their service or labor.
(6) Other cases reveal that victims believed they were 
travelling to Moscow for advanced military training but were 
instead sent to fight on the front lines in Ukraine.
(7) A group of more than twenty Kenyan men were rescued 
from a suspected human trafficking ring in September 2025 
following a raid on a residential complex in Nairobi. The men 
had reportedly been promised jobs in Russia but were set to be 
sent to fight in Ukraine.
(8) Evan Kibet, a Kenyan long-distance runner, reports a 
sports agent offered to fly him and three other Kenyans to St. 
Petersburg for races. There, he was told to sign work papers in 
Russian, and told if he did not sign, he would be killed. He 
was then sent to a military camp.
(9) Kenya's foreign ministry has described ``ruthless'' 
Kremlin-linked recruiters tricking young men to join the war 
with false job promises. According to the Kenyan Foreign 
Minister, agents masquerade as working with the Russian 
government and use unscrupulous methods including falsified 
information to lure innocent Kenyans into the battlefield.
(10) In September 2025, Kenyan authorities arrested a 
Russian Embassy employee in Nairobi and a Kenyan accomplice, 
accused of recruiting local men as mercenaries to fight for 
Russia.
(11) In addition, using local networks of recruiters, 
Russia has also directly recruited numerous Cameroonian 
soldiers, with estimates that 65 Cameroonians had been killed 
in the war.
(12) According to Ukrainian media, Ukrainian forces 
captured two Cameroonian nationals that claimed they had come 
to Russia to work--one ``to make shampoo'' and the other ``to 
fix teeth''--before they were instead sent to fight for Russia.
(13) African women have been lured to the Alabuga Special 
Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia through a 
recruitment scheme targeting 18-to-22-year-old women promising 
participants professional training in logistics, catering, and 
hospitality. Instead, these women are subject to hazardous 
factory condition and used to build drones. By some estimates 
more than 1,000 women have been recruited from across Africa to 
work in Alabuga's weapons factories.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) Russia's illegal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine has 
strained the Russian military, generating a need for additional 
personnel to supplement the ranks of Russia's armed forces and 
leading to the deceptive and coerced recruitment of Africans;
(2) abduction and forced recruitment of African nationals 
to support the Russian war machine in Ukraine likely 
constitutes human rights violations; and
(3) it is unacceptable that some African government 
officials have knowingly participated in or benefited from 
these recruitment operations at the expense of their citizens.

SEC. 4. LIST.

(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall create a list of 
foreign persons and foreign governments participating in or 
facilitating the recruitment of nationals from African countries for 
the purpose of--
(1) knowingly or unknowingly joining the Russian military 
for the purposes of fighting in Ukraine;
(2) knowingly or unknowingly joining Russia-aligned 
organizations for the purposes of fighting in Ukraine; or
(3) accepting employment under false pretenses or as 
volunteer work that supports the Russian war effort against 
Ukraine.
(b) Protection of Victims.--Individuals who are determined to be 
victims of fraud, coercion, or deception in connection with the 
activities described in subsection (a) shall not be included on the 
list established under that subsection.

SEC. 5. SANCTIONS REQUIRED.

(a) In General.--Not later than 30 days after the list required by 
section 4 is created by the Secretary of State the President may impose 
the sanctions described in paragraphs (1) through (7) of subsection (b) 
on each foreign person and foreign government identified on the list.
(b) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions described in this 
subsection are the following:
(1) Blocking of property.--The President shall pursuant to 
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 
et seq.), block and prohibit all transactions in all property 
and interests in property of the foreign person if such 
property and interests in property are in the United States, 
come within the United States, or are or come within the 
possession or control of a United States person.
(2) Export-import bank assistance for exports to sanctioned 
persons.--The President shall direct the Export-Import Bank of 
the United States not to give approval to the issuance of any 
guarantee, insurance, extension of credit, or participation in 
the extension of credit in connection with the export of any 
goods or services to the foreign person or foreign government.
(3) Loans from united states financial institutions.--The 
President shall prohibit any United States financial 
institution from making loans or providing credits to the 
foreign person or foreign government totaling more than 
$10,000,000 in any 12-month period unless the person is 
primarily engaged in activities to relieve human suffering and 
the loans or credits are provided for such activities.
(4) Loans from international financial institutions.--The 
President shall direct the United States executive director to 
each international financial institution to use the voice and 
vote of the United States to oppose any loan from the 
international financial institution that would benefit the 
foreign person or foreign government.
(5) Loans from the international development finance 
corporation; the united states trade and development agency and 
millennium challenge corporation.--The President shall direct 
the Chief Executive Officer of the United States International 
Development Finance Corporation, the Chief Executive Officer of 
the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Director of the 
United States Trade and Development Agency to prohibit any 
loan, loan guarantee, equity investment, project assistance, or 
any other type of support to a listed foreign person or foreign 
government.
(6) Procurement sanction.--The United States Government may 
not procure, or enter into any contract for the procurement of, 
any goods or services from the foreign person or foreign 
government.
(7) Exclusion of foreign individuals.--
(A) In general.--The President shall direct the 
Secretary of State to deny a visa to, and the Secretary 
of Homeland Security to exclude from the United States, 
any individual identified in the report required by 
subsection (a).
(B) Visas, admission, or parole.--An alien who the 
Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland 
Security (or a designee of one of such Secretaries) 
knows, or has reason to believe, is described in 
subparagraph (A) is--
(i) inadmissible to the United States;
(ii) ineligible for a visa or other 
documentation to enter the United States; and
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 
or paroled into the United States or to receive 
any other benefit under the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
(C) Current visas revoked.--
(i) In general.--The issuing consular 
officer, the Secretary of State, or the 
Secretary of Homeland Security (or a designee 
of one of such Secretaries) shall, in 
accordance with section 221(i) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1201(i)), revoke any visa or other entry 
documentation issued to an alien described in 
subparagraph (A) regardless of when the visa or 
other entry documentation is issued.
(ii) Effect of revocation.--A revocation 
under clause (i)--
(I) shall take effect immediately; 
and
(II) shall automatically cancel any 
other valid visa or entry documentation 
that is in the alien's possession.
(c) Exceptions.--
(1) Exception to comply with international obligations.--
Sanctions under subsection (b)(7) shall not apply with respect 
to the admission of an alien if admitting or paroling the alien 
into the United States is necessary to permit the United States 
to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the 
United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and 
entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United 
Nations and the United States, or other applicable 
international obligations.
(2) Exception relating to the provision of humanitarian 
assistance.--Sanctions under this section may not be imposed 
with respect to transactions or the facilitation of 
transactions for--
(A) the sale of agricultural commodities, food, 
medicine, or medical devices;
(B) the provision of humanitarian assistance;
(C) financial transactions relating to humanitarian 
assistance; or
(D) transporting goods or services that are 
necessary to carry out operations relating to 
humanitarian assistance.
(3) Exception for intelligence, law enforcement, and 
national security activities.--Sanctions under this section 
shall not apply to any authorized intelligence, law 
enforcement, or national security activities of the United 
States.
(4) Classified information.--In any judicial review of a 
determination made under this section, if the determination was 
based on classified information (as defined in section 1(a) of 
the Classified Information Procedures Act) such information may 
be submitted to the reviewing court ex parte and in camera. 
This paragraph does not confer or imply any right to judicial 
review.
(d) National Interest Waiver.--The President may waive the 
imposition of sanctions under subsection (b) with respect to a person 
if the President--
(1) determines that such a waiver is vital to the national 
interests of the United States; and
(2) not more than 15 days after issuing the waiver, submits 
to the appropriate congressional committees a notification of 
the waiver and the reasons for the waiver.

SEC. 6. TERMINATION OF SANCTIONS.

The President may terminate the application of sanctions under this 
Act with respect to a person if the President determines and reports to 
the appropriate congressional committees not later than 15 days before 
the termination of the sanctions that--
(1) credible information exists that the person did not 
engage in the activity for which sanctions were imposed;
(2) the person has credibly demonstrated a significant 
change in behavior, has paid an appropriate consequence for the 
activity for which sanctions were imposed, and has credibly 
committed to not engage in an activity described in paragraph 
(1) in the future; or
(3) the termination of the sanctions is in the vital 
national interests of the United States.

SEC. 7. DEFINED TERM.

In this Act, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs Committee of the House 
of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.

SEC. 8. SUNSET.

Any sanctions imposed pursuant to this Act shall terminate on the 
date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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