Africans are building Putin’s suicide drones
Russia is luring young African women to make weapons to attack Ukraine
Assembling Iranian drones in a Russian factory is an unusual option for a work-study programme. Few students or migrant workers, however desperate or foolhardy, would willingly sign up to become a military target. Yet that is the situation in which hundreds of young African women, some of them younger than 18, have unwittingly found themselves.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The Alabuga connection”
From the May 31st 2025 edition
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Donald Trump’s approach to Africa is very, well, African
What a meeting with five leaders says about his administration’s interest in the continent
Ending the war in Gaza is still fiendishly difficult
Donald Trump and Israel’s generals are pressing Binyamin Netanyahu to make a deal
The Israel-Iran war has not yet transformed the Middle East
Peace deals may be elusive, and Gulf states fear the war is far from over
Kenya’s president is bad news for Kenya and Africa
William Ruto’s tenure is a how-to guide for sowing cynicism about democracy
Iran’s “axis of resistance” was meant to be the Shias’ NATO
But today transnational political Shiism is struggling for its survival
Israel’s weird war clock: 12 days for Iran, 21 months in Gaza
Making peace with the Palestinians looks much harder than with Iran’s regime or Shias in Lebanon