The third Russia-Africa Summit opened in Moscow with 48 African countries represented, as Amnesty International urged African leaders to confront Russia over deceptive recruitment of Africans into its military.
The third Russia-Africa Summit opens in Moscow on 28 and 29 October, with representatives of 48 African countries confirmed, co-chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and African Union chair Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi. Twenty-two countries will be represented by heads of state, up from 17 at the 2023 summit, according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.
The agenda spans trade, investment, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, food security, science, technology and education. Expected outcomes include a final declaration, a declaration on AI cooperation and a 2027 to 2029 action plan for the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum. The previous summits were held in Sochi in 2019 and St Petersburg in 2023.
On the eve of the summit, Amnesty International's African section directors used an open letter to demand that African leaders confront Russia over the deceptive recruitment of Africans into its military. Amnesty said recruitment through deception or coercion in many cases amounts to trafficking, a crime under international law, and called for investigations and prosecutions. One of its directors said that for African leaders to remain silent on the issue would be a profound disservice to the people of their countries.
The summit details, including the 48 countries, the 22 heads of state and the co-chairs, are confirmed across the summit's own coverage and corroborating reports citing Ushakov. Amnesty's claims are confirmed against Amnesty's own open letter, published on 27 October. This story reports the summit as opening, not concluded: no declaration or action plan has yet been adopted, and the expected outcomes are described as expected, not achieved.
The summit's framing, from its organisers, is expanding economic and diplomatic cooperation between Russia and African states. Amnesty's intervention tests that framing directly, asking leaders gathered for partnership talks to raise a human-rights allegation against their host. Whether any leader does so in public will be the measure of how far the partnership agenda accommodates criticism.
The summit closes on 29 October, when the declarations and action plan, if adopted, will show what the gathering produced beyond its opening statements.